Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

I have had my e6400 now for about 18 months or so running Vista Business 32-bit, however I just ordered a copy of Windows 7 Business 64-bit. Now my e6400 has 3GB of RAM which has seemed to be plenty, but I am debating and trying to figure out if I should order another 2GB stick to bring it up to 4GB? Will I notice a difference - is it worth it?

Currently using it for basic tasks - office/school work, internet, streaming hulu/netflix. I fire up Photoshop raerly and do not do much in it, otherwise for photos it is Picasa and Lightroom.

Any thoughts on whether it might be worth spending the $40 and getting another 2GB stick? Or even just doing a couple of 2GB sticks from Crucial or something to upgrade it all to matching 4GB?

 

Buckhead, is depends on your usage. More RAM, will delay what is called context switch by a lot. Context switch is a method that all computer operating systems uses where it clears the RAM completely and restore everything back.

The reason for this, is simple. programs that runs on your computer (processes), are in your RAM so that the CPU can access it and perform it's magic. The memory that a program consumes is never fragmented, it's one full block. When you come to a point where you have plenty of free RAM in total, but are actually small free holes here and there, not big enough to fit one of the processes, a context switch occurs. Where the RAM is put to your HDD, RAM is cleared, and everything is restored neatly and organized. Doing this is, is very time consuming for the user (computer feel sluggish for a moment) as for one it needs to backup the RAM on your HDD and your HDD is incredibly slow, even the fastest SSD today is a snail compared to the speed of your RAM, second as the RAM is cleared the processor cannot execute any instructions, so the computer is sluggish down to even temporarily freezes until this process is completed.

Modern OS (Vista/Win7, moderately old Linux version and above) are a bit smarter doing this, where as you use your computer, the OS (Windows for instance) does a backup of your RAM as you use your computer on your HDD under the pagefile, so that when it comes to do a Context Switch, it won't need to perform a RAM to HDD process, where with 1GB+ of data will probably take several minutes to perform; it can instead simply clear the RAM and copy the HDD page file to the RAM directly. So the step is much much faster.

So, that is one advantage of getting more RAM, is as mentioned, you'll have less of these. This is great if you rarely restart or shutdown your computer.

Another thing is that you get more RAM. So, if you ever reach anything close to 3GB of usage when you use your computer, even on a rare occasion, then it might be best to get more memory, especially that RAM is very cheap, these days. Remember, that if your RAM is near full, Windows (well any OS for that mater), will start using the pagefile (which is set to be bigger than your RAM), and start switching "old" application from the memory, to the HDD, and take one from the HDD that you requested to bring back, to the RAM, ready to be used.

So these are the advantages.

Now, there is another note going 64-bit. Every data block on your HDD and RAM has an address. These address are 32-bit long (ex: 000000000000000000000000000000010 - for the third block of your RAM (address is in binary))
Now using a 64-bit OS, means that the address will be 64-bit long (so twice as long) as you'll have a reduction of a few MB of RAM in comparison. Same for your HDD (hence why the max HDD partition size you can have under a 32-bit OS/processor is 2TB).

Additionally, as Windows 64-bit uses a technology called WOW or Windows-On-Windows. WOW is basically as it says, it's Windows 32-bit ON Windows 64-bit. Where every program and library files that comes with Windows and that can be access by other programs are available in 32-bit. (hence why you have 2 folders in under C:\Windows, called System32 (the one with all the system files), and sysWOW64). This allows 100% of Windows 32-bit programs, runs perfectly well under Windows 64-bit. No emulation needed, so no performance degradation visible.

So that means that you'll have more library files loaded on your memory, hence a bit less RAM available to you.

My opinion on the mather?
Well, I don't know how you use your computer, but if I just base myself on what you said above, then I think you should be fine with 3 GB of RAM. BUT, RAM is so cheap, if you plan on keeping your laptop for a while, it might be interesting to upgrade it. And if you plan in keeping the laptop for several years to come, than going 4GB is something, that I believe, will happen sooner or later, as programs gets more and more fancy, and have more and more features (as people have more memory to support these new features).

The question I am wondering, is that, do you REALLY have 3GB of RAM? or 3.2-3.7GB of RAM, because if you have the later, then you have 4GB of RAM which is being locked by the OS as it's a 32-bit OS (so the processor goes under 32-bit mode, and can only address 4GB - video memory - sound card memory)

 

There will be a small improvement in performance with 4GB due the memory running in full dual channel instead of pseudo-dual channel. However, you would need to run benchmarks to measure the difference.

You will welcome the extra RAM if you discover that you have any programs that are not 64-bit compatible and you need to install XP Mode to run them. XP mode needs at least 0.5GB to run.

John

 

From your description, 3 GB is plenty, you don't need more and won't realize a benefit.

To get the best value for your money, wait till you need it.

You should experience much better performance on Win7 vs Vista.

 

Wow - thanks for the detailed explanation. I do have 3GB of RAM which is what the system came loaded with. I do plan on keeping this laptop for at least 2.5 more years, which is why I am biting the bullet and upgrading to Windows 7 even though Vista has been ok to me so far.

I think what I will do is watch the memory prices and grab up a pair of 2GB sticks from Crucial or similar and replace what I have in there when the price drops or i can catch a sale. No rush to do anything.

 

FWIW:

Historically my add-on RAM has been purchased from Crucial, but recently I have been purchasing GSkill RAM from NewEgg with good results. Main reason is a $ubstantial co$t $avings.

 

Good to know. As I was looking at Newegg today I noticed the GSkill RAM, but ignored it as I had not heard of it before. Will take another look at it.

 

G.Skill makes memory aimed, usually, at gamers or anyone who seek demanding memory intensive application. They are like Corsair. They are very well known in the computer enthusiasts world. Corsair is also just as good, but usually more on the expensive side. I use G.Skill on my gaming rig, and same for my brother. Very solid memory.

 

Hey I have Dell Latitute 6400 and I have been having 1 issue.

When wearing headphones and using the usb mouse plugged into the usb port close to the headphone jack, I heard a "eeeeeeeeeeeeee" noise all the time. When I take the USB mouse out of the USB port the sound goes away.

Any fix for this?

Also I have very old BIOS maybe someone can tell me which is the latest and stable BIOS version I should get?

Thanks.

 

You should update your BIOS. Dell always provide the latest BIOS of their system on their website. Dell doesn't offer any beta or alpha releases of drivers or BIOS's.
Also, go to Dell web site and download and install (be sure to uninstall the old ones first) ALL latest drivers. If you have the Nvidia graphic solution, be sure to go at Nvidia.com to get the latest drivers from there.

When you download the driver, be sure you select the correct operating system that you have on your system, and which version (32 or 64-bit).

If you have any problems, contact Dell Tech support.
If your problem is not solved, contact Dell Tech Support for a possible laptop repair.