Any need for mor memory

Well I just purchased a refurbished xps1530 from dell. I will be useing it for music, photos and alittle video editing. It is coming with 2gb of ram. Will there be any reason to upgrade to 3 or 4. Seems like the price is around $65.00 for a 2 gig memory stick.
Not that I want to spend more $$ but if it will make the computer run better Im willing
Deeppowder

 

For those tasks, I don't think you'll see much of an improvement with 3 or 4 gigs of memory. Music and photos are very low-key tasks to begin with and video editing is usually harder on the processor than on the memory. So I don't see you needing any more RAM.

 

I bought 4GB of Corsair PC 5300 memory from Newegg for $73.98 with free 2 day shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172

If you running Vista I would suggest the extra memory.

 

Ok I will be runnig vista home premium
The price from egghead makes is a no brainer if it helps. Will my computer be able to utilize 4 gigs? Is it better to have both memories be the same size(2+1 or 2+2). Also im confused by what people are talking about with 64 bit vs 32 bit vista
Thanks
Mike

 

Hey

I had a 2gb ram and I notice a massive difference with shut down times and loading as well.

I would not go to 4gb but love the 3gb

 

is there any negitive to going to 4 gigs over three besides an extra 35 bucks any possitives??
Deeppowder

 

A 32bit OS wil only be able to see and use around 3.3GB of RAM.
A 64bit OS can use the entire 4GB - but you have to make sure you find all the 64bit drivers etc for your components, and peripherals - and these arent always available.

If you have two RAM modules of the same size and type, Dual-channel mode is enabled, and this can give you a slight performance boost. However, note that this performance boost is actually hardly noticable anyways!

If you had XP, 2GB is more then enough for what you are doing with the system. However, with Vista I would suggest more. Vista is very resource intensive - by just booting Vista up you use around 700MB - thats just by switching it on. Then again, Vista does use the RAM more efficiently....

Knowing Dell, if you have 2GB RAM at the moment, you probably have 2x1GB sticks. Hence I would advise you purchase a 2GB module. You'll then have to remove one of the 1GB modules currently installed, and replace it (then sell the 1GB on eBay!! ).
If you are lucky enough to have a single 2GB module at the moment, then purchase an additional 1GB module.

 

Ok, is there any reason if vista can use 3.3 not just to get the 4gigs? Is there any diference between memory. For 70 bucks The 4 gigs from newegg seem like a great deal.
Mike

 

Just get RAM that comes with a lifetime warranty. I got G-Skill brand running in two Dell 1521 machines at home, and have no problems with it. Others speak highly of Crucial, Kingston, etc.

 

The 1530 will see 3.58GB of RAM using the 32-bit O/S. However, the remaining memory will still be utilized by hardware such as the video card. So yes, there is a benefit of having 4GB of memory.

And as for unmatched pairs of memory (ie. 3GB) I believe that the BIOS in Dell systems are optimized to still take advantage of dual channel mode. I could be wrong but I'm pretty certain I read it here or on Dell's support website.

 

Thanks for all the info. I ended up buying 4gigs through newwegg as rodknee sugested. 74 bucks with ship is unbelievable. My computer better ship today. I will say that dell shipping is slow. Thanks for all the info. Cant wait to get my 1530 and go from my old sony vio with 256mb of ram to 4 gigs
Deeppo

 

So the consensus seems to be that spending the extra money is worth it if you run Vista and have 2 gigs currently. Anyone disagree?

This thread is tempting me to get the extra mem. I wonder if I'm really going to get faster boot up times. Shut down is already lightening quick.