how much memory is enough for Vista

[rbi]

My R61 has alreday got two 1GB memory and 128mb dedicated video card. But it runs very slow when I let the computer decides what's best for itself. Even when I want to add additional features for Office 2007 Ultimate, it is just freezing or nothing has happened. I want to use it to do some simple mpeg-2 video editing. How much memory is enough and any good suggestion for the seller? Do you think if it is worthy to buy Lenovo branded one or generic one?

Thanks.

PS Windows Vista Business 32bit. 120GB 5400rpm hdd

[carbon_unit]

Two gb of memory is not bad. It should run pretty good. Maybe let it run by itself for a while and finish indexing the drive?
If you have Vista 32 bit 3 gb ram it the most you can use. If you have 64 bit Vista you can use up to 4 gb ram.
I would check Lenovo's price against Crucial. Crucial's supplier Micron is also a supplier to many OEM's including Lenovo. So it is possible that you might get Micron memory from Lenovo.
I would stay away from the generic stuff. The compatibility seems to be hit and miss. Sometimes it works fine and sometimes it doesn't.

[Trekk69]

And ram is so cheap these days now anyways, its worth it paying the extra coin to get an upgrade

[mgo]

My R61 has alreday got two 1GB memory and 128mb dedicated video card. But it runs very slow when I let the computer decides what's best for itself. Even when I want to add additional features for Office 2007 Ultimate, it is just freezing or nothing has happened. I want to use it to do some simple mpeg-2 video editing. How much memory is enough and any good suggestion for the seller? Do you think if it is worthy to buy Lenovo branded one or generic one?

Thanks.

PS Windows Vista Business 32bit. 120GB 5400rpm hdd

You have enough horsepower, but Vista (just like XP did) needs some adjustments.

Just go in and set Performance Options\Visual Effects to "adjust for best performance, and then make sure you have reset Clear Type after you finish. "let windows choose" and "best appearance" always slows things down.

Make sure you have defragged recently, as well.

[rbi]

Two gb of memory is not bad. It should run pretty good. Maybe let it run by itself for a while and finish indexing the drive?
If you have Vista 32 bit 3 gb ram it the most you can use. If you have 64 bit Vista you can use up to 4 gb ram.
I would check Lenovo's price against Crucial. Crucial's supplier Micron is also a supplier to many OEM's including Lenovo. So it is possible that you might get Micron memory from Lenovo.
I would stay away from the generic stuff. The compatibility seems to be hit and miss. Sometimes it works fine and sometimes it doesn't.

Thanks to all guys. Is there any difference between 3GB and 4GB totally?

[rbi]

I mean if I install 1 dim 2GB and 1dim 1GB, wha't the difference in terms of performance from 2dims 2GB?

[johnp126]

i went with 2x2=4gb vista64 because i did not want to have to upgrade at some point in the nbs life. then i'd have a useless 1gb chip. it makes a difference bcause it can use it all in 64 so it works nicely. i also have discrete video 256 so memory is never an issue. i like to buy for the long run, but thats just my opinion

[Trekk69]

I keep the old 1gb chip, and put in a 2gb for a total of 3. But I only have 32 and don't plan on getting 64 until my new laptop.
I think if they are the same (i.e 2*2) than it can be 'dual channel', and slightly faster speeds maybe obtained (but not entirely sure).

[rbi]

I keep the old 1gb chip, and put in a 2gb for a total of 3. But I only have 32 and don't plan on getting 64 until my new laptop.
I think if they are the same (i.e 2*2) than it can be 'dual channel', and slightly faster speeds maybe obtained (but not entirely sure).

Thanks Trekk69. That's exactly I would like to find out. 2x2 dual chanel and 1+2=3 would have any significant difference? What you meant is there is no huge improvement but slightly faster speeds, isn't it? any one else can help this out?

[Trekk69]

I had to do some searching in an old topic, but I think I found what is pertainant:

Eric Giles wrote:
It will probably do fine with your 2GB of total RAM, but you might find replacing one of the 1GB DIMMS with a 2GB for 3GB total might be in your best interests. I say this because 32bit operating systems like Vista Business will only see 3GB maximum-you would have to install a 64bit version of Vista for it to take advantage of your maximum allowable 4GB.


tomh009 wrote:
Based on reading various benchmarks, dual channel can provide maybe an 80% improvement in a strict memory benchmark. However, any sort of realistic benchmark will stress the CPU more than memory, and then the difference is in the 5-10% range. And the extra gigabyte will make Vista more than 10% happier.

(from: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... al+channel)

Hope it helps

[SHoTTa35]

3GB vs 4GB will be the exact same (unless the OS youre using loves more RAM) They are both run in dual-channel mode. One is symetric (2x2) and the other is asymetric. So no worries. you wont loose dual channel by going to 2X1GB totaling 3GB.

In real world though, nobody seens a real benefit in DC mode compared to not so don't worry about it

[rbi]

3GB vs 4GB will be the exact same (unless the OS youre using loves more RAM) They are both run in dual-channel mode. One is symetric (2x2) and the other is asymetric. So no worries. you wont loose dual channel by going to 2X1GB totaling 3GB.

In real world though, nobody seens a real benefit in DC mode compared to not so don't worry about it

Thanks guys for all the info. So now I just need to buy another extra 2GB from memoryx.com and keep my original 1GB one. Any opinion about the purchase?

[hellosailor]

rbi, over the years I have used prime suppliers like Kingston and Crucial many times and they NEVER disappoint. They are big players who will be around to back up their lifetime warranties, and that counts to me. And I know they DO back up the warranties if needed.

On the question of how much memory? Vista will run in 1GB, run nicely in 2GB, requires 2GB if you are using the Aero interface which will slow down performance in any case, and the only reason to go over 2GB is if your software is actually USING it. You can use the performance monitor (dig, it's gotten better in Vista) to see how much memory your computer is actually using in real time, or log that to study it. 2GB should be enough for most users unless you are doing AV or photo editing or CAD, something intensive like that.

With every version of Windows, "out of the box" is not a performance tune. You can do many things mentioned on many web sites to tweak speed. One of the simplest is to set the minimum/maximum sizes for virtual memory to the same size, so the space used on the hard drive is "fixed" and never rewritten or fragmented by that process. Or, disable the virtual memory entirely if you are not using it, along with any services that you are sure you don't/won't need. If you DO manually disable services--leave yourself a note or log file listing each one, because a lot of software presumes the defualt services are all there and "it don't work!" can happen when they aren't.

Vista has really bloated the number of defualt services it runs, but then again, it is doing way more as a default.