Can I buy a pretty bare D630 and still upgrade to 4G of ram?

I'm looking to buy a D630 w/ 2 Duo T7250 (2.00GHz) 2M L2 Cache, Windows XP Home Edition, than only 512 MB of memory, w/ an 80G HD for $830. Unless someone can find me a cheaper one. haha. I was than going to spend the 80 bucks on 4G of Ram from Newegg, but wanted to make sure it would all work w/ this set-up or would I need somesort of an upgrade to make the 4 work? Also, while were on the subject, how hard is it to replace the ram under the keyboard? Ive looked at the tutorial and it looked fairly do-able, but I am a total noob, so would I be better off having someone do it for me?

Thank-you for any help

 

From what I gather you won't see the benefits of 4gb RAM with anything less than Vista 64 bit.....I may be wrong though

 

It'll work fine, but yeah one of the ram slots is under the keyboard... it's not too difficult, just be careful not to lose any screws.

You need a 64-bit OS to get the full benefit of 4 gb... but even with a 32-bit OS, 4 gb is still an improvement over 2 gb or even 3 gb. You'll end up with about 3.4 gb usable or something like that... and dual-channel.

However, it's probably overkill unless you're running something really RAM-hungry. Even in Vista, 2 gb is plenty for most tasks.

I'd consider going for 2 gb + upgrade the hard drive to a 7200 rpm drive instead.

 

I've done the RAM upgrade twice, once to 2GB then recently to 4GB. Watch out not to break the hinge cover, but it's smooth sailing after that.

Other considerations - Not sure that I needed it, but I did install kb929777 before I did the upgrade.

Regards,
Paolo

 

with any 32 bit operating system, it will utilize a MAX of 3.6gb.......most people will see it max out at 3.2gb.

 

So, just so I understand would any version of vista fully utilize the 4G, or would it have to be Vista Business edition,or ultimate edition? Thanks again.

 

You'd need a 64-bit version of Vista to fully utilize 4 gb.
It's not a matter of Business or Ultimate... each edition comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions... even Vista Home Basic is fine if you use the 64-bit version.
Dell doesn't pre-install the 64-bit version though... so you'll need to get it somewhere else.

 

Oh, ok. thanks

 

It is also a bit challenging to get all of the proper drivers to make the system work under 64 bit. Unless you are a computer geek, i recommend everyone sticking to 32bit for at least another year. 3.2gb of ram is more than enough for today.

 

I don't know... I think Dell does offer drivers for Vista 64-bit on the D630... you can just download them. (Double-check though.) But if you have peripherals... you may want to see if they're supported in 64-bit Vista. Also... apparently the iPod Touch/iPhone doesn't work with 64-bit Vista.

 

vista soaks up every amount it can