3 quick questions about my purchase

I plan on getting a HP dv6500t (the intel one), with a Duo Core 2 2.0 processor, decent specs, but there are 2 things that are concerning me.

the first is the video card, it's a 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS. Problem is everywhere i've searched, even on the bench mark, it shows that this GeFOrce 8400M GS is only capable of 64mb of memory? But when on the HP laptop it says

and also that 767MB shared memory sounds phenomenal. (also what does the 2 Dimm mean?)



My second concern is upgrading the RAM. It comes with 1 gig of ram standard, and to upgrade it to 2 is going to cost me another $100. I've done some researching, and I stumbled upon this 2GB ram stick for $90 bucks. But is this ram compatible? Let alone reliable? I havn't heard of CORSAIR before. Could this be a harmful investment?



My last and final question is also regarding ram, IF I DO follow through with buying standard ram (saving $100 not upgrading to 2gb (2 sticks of 1 gb), and buy only one 2 GB stick of ram (because thats all i can afford) would it be safe for my laptop to run with 2.5gb of ram? I remember talking to a friend and he says that RAM sticks should be installed in pairs (2x 512mb, 2x 1gb), even having a 1gb stick and 2gb stick installed could really mess it up.

thank you for reading all this i really appreciate you guys helping me with my potential investment!

 

The 8400M GS will have 128MB of dedicated memory. I'm pretty sure it does not come in a 64MB flavor. I think you'll only get 767MB shared memory if you use Vista, but I could be wrong there. Two DIMM means they broke that 1GB or 2GB of memory into two sticks.

If you want to upgrade the memory, you'll want to find a configuration with 1GB of pre-installed ram on one stick... and buy another 1GB of ram on another stick. And you can read about dual channelling RAM in this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167472

 

That is correct, some 8400GS have 256MB also so the only 64MB you mention is wrong.

#2 Yes, and Corsair is a good brand, one of the best.

Finally, you can use different size sticks of ram on most Intel based systems and still retain some of the benefits of dual channel. The closer in size the more optimized this will be, with same size being the best. Dual channel is a modest gain in performance (10% max bandwidth on Intel) but is free so if convenient worth taking advantage of.

 

The dv2500t has a 64 Mb 8400m GS. The dv6500t has a 128 Mb 8400m GS.

 

what do you mean with 1gb of PREINSTALLED ram on one stick?

To clear things up, i would ultimately like to have 4GBs of ram on my notebook.
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thanks guys for the input so far!

 

Commander is saying if you have 1GB 1 stick then you can buy another 1GB or 2GB stick and not have to waste anything. Notebooks have 2 slots so if both are filled and you buy more you can't use all. To use 4GB's RAM you need Windows 64. Do you know that? Windows 32 can't use much more than 3GB's.

 

Ooh I understand what he's saying, but as for my OS, im thinking about formatting the laptop so i can install windows XP on it...
would it help to know that I plan on playing games a lot on it? when i play games, more ram always helps right? Because what im thinking is that the GeForce has sharing capabilities along with its dedicated 128mbs, so the more Ram i have available the more memory the gpu is going to use right?

please correct me if i'm wrong


so basically even though i may be using a windows 32, 4gbs of ram (although unnecessary for windows) can benefit my graphics right?



and also, having a 1gb stick and 2gb stick in my laptop wouldn't be a problem?

 

Winndows 32 can not see 4Gb's of RAM so no it will not help beyond about 3GB that it can see. Another thing is the GPU using system RAM is kind of useless. It is not fast enough and is to slow to help! And no that extra memory cannot be addressed by your system so NO!

A 1GB and 2GB sticks should be OK but not Ideal maybe a 3% drop in performance vs matched sticks.

 

hmm but would 1GB and 2GB sticks help my computer better than 2 1GB sticks?

 

Look at the sticky's "dual chanel RAM" I don't have the time to explain more.