Worth going from 768mb -> 1.5gb ram on my T41

[aphex]

Currently have a IBM T41 (1.6ghz) lappy. I do quite a bit of photoshop work on it (specifically with NEF files) and am curious if going from 768mb -> 1.5gb ram would make a noticable difference.

I've already swapped out the stock 40gb 5400rpm drive for a 100gb 7200rpm Hitachi and the speed increase was fairly significant, i was very happy with the upgrade.

Should i go for it?

 

[drum]

does the machine run pretty smooth when not running PS? take a look at your peak commit charge and see what you're looking at there.

 

[aphex]

it runs fairly smoothly right now, just filters can take quite a bit... also i usually dont open more than 2-3 pics at a time as any more really drags it down...

 

[chicomark]

Sounds like its swapping to disk a lot, from the speed increase you noticed. Hard to know why this is though, could be virtual memory or could be PS application.....

I would open Task Manager, and check whether the CPU is maxing out during slow tasks. If its the CPU then adding more RAM will do little to speed it up. If the CPU is not maxed, then you'll probably get more headroom with some extra RAM. Make sure its the fastest RAM your machine will take. I have 2GB in mine but I do database work (Oracle sucks up 1GB all to itself...), otherwise i'd be hardpressed to go over 1GB.

Also, defrag your harddrive, this may also help. You can also defrag your RAM pagefile with PageDefrag from Sysinternals (Freeware).

I have the same laptop, but am currently having trouble upgrading the HD to a Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm. How did you go about upgrading it? I would really appreciate some advice here.

Thanks
Mark