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    m1530 Ram issue

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by e-bayer1277, Oct 20, 2009.

  1. e-bayer1277

    e-bayer1277 Notebook Guru

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    Hi everyone,

    I have an older m1530 from around when they were first released and I'm wondering If I could take advantage of more than 4GB of ram? Thanks for your help.
     
    e-bayer1277, Oct 20, 2009
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  2. Signal2Noise

    Signal2Noise Über-geek.

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    Depends on what you do with your computer. Games? Not so much. CAD/Graphic/Photo apps? Probably.

    And of course you'll need to be running a 64-bit o/s.
     
    Signal2Noise, Oct 20, 2009
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  3. kanehi

    kanehi Notebook Deity

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    I have 8gb RAM on mines with the A12 BIOS.
     
    kanehi, Oct 20, 2009
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  4. e-bayer1277

    e-bayer1277 Notebook Guru

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    Signal, why could the additional Ram be used for video editing but not games? And, Kanehi, with a bios update I coudl effectively make use of more tahn 4gb of ram? The hardware used in older and newer m1530s is no different? thanks.
     
    e-bayer1277, Oct 21, 2009
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  5. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Games don't require that much memory. If a game requires 2 GBs of memory, and you only have 1, then you're in trouble. If you have 4 or 8, then it doesn't make a difference.
     
    Lithus, Oct 21, 2009
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  6. e-bayer1277

    e-bayer1277 Notebook Guru

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    Alright, thanks Lithus. But for video editing and the such, even with one of the first m1530s, my hardware (and a 64bit OS) will be capable of effectively using more than 4gb of ram?
     
    e-bayer1277, Oct 21, 2009
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  7. kanehi

    kanehi Notebook Deity

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    My m1530 is 1.5 years old. XPS M1530, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800MhzFSB, 4M L2 Cache). The motherboard should be the same as yours. You have to use a x64 bit OS to use more than 4gb RAM. x32 bits does use all 4gb RAM but some of it is used by hardwares/softwares. When I load up my XPS the available RAM is ~7.5gb
     
    kanehi, Oct 21, 2009
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  8. e-bayer1277

    e-bayer1277 Notebook Guru

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    Alright, thanks again Kanehi. any recommendations on what RAM to buy and from where? I'm looking for something cheap but quality.
     
    e-bayer1277, Oct 21, 2009
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  9. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Just make sure it has lifetime warranty. All those companies will be reputable. Then choose the cheapest.
     
    sgogeta4, Oct 21, 2009
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  10. kanehi

    kanehi Notebook Deity

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    I got mine at Amazon since they had the most reasonable price with free shipping. Newegg has more shoices and they're also reasonable.
     
    kanehi, Oct 22, 2009
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  11. e-bayer1277

    e-bayer1277 Notebook Guru

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    Thanks. Can i mix and match the ram? Ex: keep the 2gb from Dell that I have more and buy more ram from a third party?
     
    e-bayer1277, Oct 23, 2009
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  12. DaveGT

    DaveGT Notebook Guru

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    Yeah you can mix and match but you will probably find that you have 2x1GB RAM modules...not 1x2GB so you are best swapping them both out and selling on if you can. Then you can get 4GB kit (2x2GB) to go in their place.

    I have always gone with Crucial for laptop memory and never had a problem - one of the most reputable and reasonably priced vendors out there.

    http://www.crucial.com/
     
    DaveGT, Oct 23, 2009
    #12