For those planning to upgrade RAM on WIND (question)

According to

http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/how-to/msi-wind-ram.aspx

They said that you needed a 1GB DDR2-5300 SODIMM to upgrade RAM.

The one listed below is 5400... Would that still work?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...sp?EdpNo=2968498&sku=P33-5024&srkey=DDR2 5300

Thanks.

 

That has to be a typo. There is no such thing as DDR2-5400

667mhz DDR2 memory is 5300.

 

ok, yes. its a typo. read the title and then the actual description. It states PC2-5300

 

It's not a typo. Some ram manufacturers call it 5300, and some 5400. 667 x 8 is 5336. Some companies round up, some round down. It's the same ram.

 

it is a typo. they have 2 different numbers on the page, 5400 and 5300 for the same product.

i don't doubt what you're saying, but in this case, its a typo. You can BARELY make out the numbering in the blurry picture, but its 5300

 

Also, no, the ram you chose would not work, as it is not laptop ram (sodimm).

 

holy cow. I must be tired.. I totally missed that haha. I was all caught up in the speed rating to even pay attention that the ram in that link was for a desktop.

This is what you would want:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220078

 

I wonder if anyone would benefit from having 2GB instead of 1GB on a Wind.

 

Well, it can't hurt, right? I upgraded my g1s with a 2 gb stick, so I have an extra 1 gb sodimm lying around - that empty ram slot looks promising.

 

As far as I know XP does not benefit from 2GB unless you use applications that actually use it. One example is Photoshop, with large images it is beneficial to use 2GB.

So it does not hurt, but in many cases it will be waisted. I mean how many people use a Wind for applications like Photoshop.

 

It is true. Unless you use programs that add up to more then 1gb or ram use it will show little or no benefit. The cpu will limit the Wind (and all netbooks) more then the RAM.
If you get 2gb you could turn off your page file or maybe even create a ram disk of 512MB or so. Maybe one could minimize the harddisk use and extend battery life.
Never the less I will upgrade mine too. I got 3GB in my macbook right now. 2gb and 1gb. I will upgrade it to 4gb and got a stick leftover.

 

Quick question: Can the wind be upgraded to 3gb? Ie. can you add a 2gb module to it? As most report it to only support upto 2gb??

 

The chipset only supports 2GB it is the same for all Atom based netbooks.
If you put in 2gb+1gb it will either not work or only make 2gb usable.

 

Hmmm... Are you sure, has anyone actually tested it yet though??

I can't give up on the hope of 3gb until it's been tested.. and don't understand how it would've been anymore difficult to support then 2gb total?

Also would that mean if you plugged in a 2gb module into a linux model, what would happen exactly??

 

What do you need 3GB RAM for on something like the Wind?

I think 1GB is probably just fine for most uses, and 2GB more than enough for anything the Wind can do reasonably well.

 

no benefit. paging will only happen if you use programs that add up to more then 1GB.

For the people that are interested; try opening up 30 applications in XP and see how much memory that uses by using ctrl-alt-del. It's an interesting thing to do.

 

So 2gb is listed as the maximum supported by MSI, however can anyone confirm their is a bios restriction in place preventing an upgrade to 3gb? I mean, what's the cost difference to me? Like pretty minimal, and too be honest, because i'm running vista everywhere else presently, I'm thinking about upgrading this device as well...

I figure with the added services of vista, plus anti virus / firewall.. the extra ram isn't exactly going to hurt, and it's so cheap as well? so can anyone confirm the restriction as opposed to just stating what intel / msi list as maximum "supported"?

and so you know... presently with just my firefox v3 open and msn on vista 64 i'm at 1.75gb os memory used...

 

It is not a bios limitation. The chipset is limited. Intel did it. The 945GMS is limited to 2gb. Check the intel website with the specs: http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/945GMS/index.htm

Also there are a number of other laptops with the different Core Solos and Core Duos CPUs that use the same mainboard chip and they are all limited.

 

Did anybody mention how if u upgrade the RAM then it voids your warranty? one of those laptop review sites did it (with video) and then found out from an MSI rep that doing so would void the warranty.

but, then they go on to say there is no actual sticker covering the extra RAM slot. so you just need to remember to take it back out if u need legit repairs.

having said that, I've been running my "real" laptop for 3 years on 1GB of RAM. If anything the HDD is the bottleneck. Plus what would you do with the Wind that requires 2 or 3 GB or RAM? encode videos? photoshop? run 10 applications on the small 10 inch screen?

Personally i would save the money and wait for a touchscreen hack.

 

Exactly. On XP 1GB is quite optimal. I can run 30 applications at the same time without any problem.

Vista is a different story though.

 

It hurts as the extra RAM will consume more power -> less battery life.

 

It hurts also because your hibernate will take twice as long, making the hibernation useless.

 

how does hibernation take twice as long because there are 2 sticks of 1 gig, instead of just 1 stick of 1 gig?

 

When hibernating the content of the memory is written to disk. If you have 2GB it will take twice as long as 1GB.

Hibernating with 1GB takes about maybe 20 seconds with the HDD of the Wind. A lot faster than booting up normally.

 

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html