Notice any speed increase with 768mb vs 512mb memory?

[treker]

Using XP with 1.6 Centrino. Will I see much speed increase with added memory. I know going from 256 to 512 is a huge benefit. But adding just more, does it really help?

[AssPenny]

Depends, over all, no, there isnt an all glorious speed increase. But, if your like me and i constantly have +-500mb in use, yes, the extra amout would be of benefit. Just depends on usage at this point.

[lvlolvlo]

a buddy of mine who has a similar notebook to mine t40 mines t40p said that his notebook was running better with the 768 than with the 512. he just recently upgraded it

[rhema83]

It will help if you use up your memory often. Check your task manager for memory and page file usage. Whenever I work with photoshop or audio mastering software, the speed and response is noticeable.

[w0qj]

personally i think you're better off spending your money to buy a 7K60 Hard Drive (Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM 60 GB with 8MB cache and 3 yr warranty).

i got my T42s (2373-K5H, native 512 MB RAM, 1.7 MHz CPU, 40 GB 5400 RPM Hard drive) 2 mths ago.

in my office work, i regularly open all of the following programs (total use up just under 512 MB RAM, CPU usage typically below 10%):

Outlook Express (with 4.2 GB worth of emails & attachments)
MS Excel
X1 Desktop Searching Program (http://desktop.yahoo.com, www.x1.com)
Windows Explorer
AVAST antivirus (freeware)
ZoneAlarm firewall (freeware)

a) 7 weeks ago i upgraded to total of 1024 MB RAM and there was some speed improvement especially when i switch applications when all above programs have been loaded. some improvement, but not really that dramatic. i agree 768 MB RAM is more than enough for general office work for a typical user.

b) just last week, i replaced my hard drive with the Hitachi 7K60 and it made a HUGE difference.
everything feels a lot more snappy--especially start up and shut-down.
programs open noticably faster.
right-click context menus pop up MUCH faster.


in fact, if you already have 512 MB RAM, i would recommend you upgrade your hard drive first.
then later, budget willing, you can still upgrade RAM later.

[lvlolvlo]

in fact, if you already have 512 MB RAM, i would recommend you upgrade your hard drive first.
then later, budget willing, you can still upgrade RAM later.

concur!

[RCube]

really depends how you use your computer.
After you used your computer for a while doing what you usually do. Open up task manager -> peformance. And look at the "Peak" under "Commit Charge (K)". If that number is much higher than 512MB then upgrading ram would be a smart thing to do.

[fbrdphreak]

I made the upgrade about a month ago and I would say to say it was worth the investment. I do some gaming and I'm sure that helped with NFSU & CS:CZ, but general multitasking is better. I also changed my page file settings to a lower size, so that (A) it wouldn't vary in size as much and reduce fragmentation and (B) so that I have more precious space free on my teeny-40GB.
I agree with the others that a 7200RPM HDD is a faster upgrade and more worthwhile, but obviously a good bit more expensive. Depending on whether you need greater storage than 60Gb, I would wait until this fall when Seagate releases their 100GB 7200RPM drives. I know I am

[Daver]

With the current memory prices, I would not recommend upgrading in increments less than 512MB.

You only have two slots. If your average typical memory usage ever grows beyond 768MB, what do you do then? I'd say go for 1GB and don't worry about it for that much longer, since you're starting with 512MB.

I started with a 256MB config, and upgraded it to 768MB. When I did the upgrade I made sure I put the 512MB in the internal slot...the one hardest to reach. Next time when/if I upgrade the 256MB gets replaced. My typical usage starts at about 600MB, and easily hovers over 700MB with any amount of uptime.

Also keep in mind that the more you suspend/resume instead of reboot, the more your memory usage will grow over time.

-Daver

[Champ]

daver good advice for him/her. but one thing I don't recommend is chanigng ht internal slot. What's the point there's chance you won't have to do that and it won't get any harder later. If there was a 100% chance I see how you might want to get the hard part over with or something... Now if you send it for depot they might lose you're RAM if you require systemboard or something replacement meaning you'll have to touch that again. So bottom line is don't plan for hte future if doing it the present doens't help.