768mb vs 512mb ram, any difference?

[akerman]

Hi.
I am buying an IBM T41p laptop, and don't know whether to go with the stock configuration of 512MB PC2700 ram, or get 256MB extra for about 85 USD (I'm in Europe).

I will be using the laptop for coding, programming, mathematics, physics, and a little bit sparetime webdesigning / image editing.

The notebook has an ATI FireGL T2 video card btw (built on 9600), if that matters.

 

[RaPTuRe]

Ok, first let me say that you can never have enough RAM. This is especially true of notebooks for the simple reason that notebook hard drives cannot hope to compete at the same level as desktop hard drives, so even if you have a 'desktop replacement' notebook, even the fastest (7200rpm) notebook HDDs can barely compare to current 5400rpm desktop HDDs. I would strongly recommend that you rather spend that US$85 on upgrading to a 7200rpm HDD (If you haven't already). Otherwise, what else can I say other than if you need it, get it. For plain old web surfing, average run-of-the-mill programming etc, you won't really notice the difference.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[superboss]

My advice is
1. Make sure that if you do decide to get only 512MB that you get 1 512 MB RAM module and not 2 256 RAM modules

2. I dont think its a considerable improvement to go from 512 to 768, if your gonna upgrade, go to 1024MB RAM, if you upgrade to 768 it will be much more costly in the future to go to 1024 as then you will need to get rid of the 256 RAM module.

hope this helps

cheers


Opel Superboss, now that was a car!

 

[akerman]

Hey, thanks for your replies.

The notebook already comes with a 60GB 7200rpm IBM harddrive. It also already comes with a single stick of 512MB DDR333 ram, built-in...

I guess I'll just wait then, until I need the extra 512mb (Longhorn?) and then buy an extra stick of 512MB then - I am just afraid that DDR333 will be so outdated then, that it will actually be more expensive, than it is now..

 

[BigRat]

erm my 4200rpm harddisk seems to run hot. about 50 degrees. are you sure 7200 rpm is ok? i'm running a dell inspiron 5150

:redface: :frown: :lol: :tongue:

 

[RaPTuRe]

well,

a) if notebooks couldn't handle 7200rpm 2.5" HDDs, then they wouldn't sell them with notebooks.
b) 50'C is not hot at all for a notebook HDD - or any HDD really. If it regularly stays above 65'C then, you have a moderate reason to worry.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[BigRat]

thanks rapture. guess i don't really have to worry then

:redface: :frown: :lol: :tongue:

 

[blah]

512 will do just fine (if it will ever get picked out?) for what you gonna do. I have 392 and it is hardly gets to the 3/4 with the same stuff I do, even with 10+ programs running.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[akerman]

Depends on the notebook.. the majority of notebooks handle faster harddrives well - ie. no added noise/temperature increase. But even though Dells notebooks are big and bulky (compared to others), they still have a problem with heat dissipation

 

[RaPTuRe]

not true - in fact Dell's cooling solutions pioneered the way the majority of notebooks are cooled today. There are no notebooks on the market that actively cool the HDD bay, and the fact that the 'skeletal' system of C/D and 8000 series Dell notebooks is composed of high conductivity metal to spread the heat more or less evenly throughout the notebook. Aside from this, most notebooks don't employ active cooling on the GPU board/chip which Dell does, and dell, in fact, were the first major notebook manuf. to use active GPU cooling in their products.

With regards to dell notebooks being bulky, the x300 is probably one of the (if not the) smallest Pentium-M notebooks available. Other than this, they definitely do not have a problem with heat dissipation. There was an issue, at one stage, with the M10 GPU overheating on random models, but this was not limited to Dell, nor was it at all Dell's fault, but, as it turned out, ATI's.

I hope I have cleared things up.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[akerman]

Okay, that certainly goes against, what I have read on different fora across the web. Try searching for user reviews on the Dell 8600, and you will find, that a lot of people, are reporting heat-problems. But maybe it's not because of the harddrive?

Anyways, anandtech did a 4200 rpm vs 5400 rpm vs 7200 rpm test, and they concluded, that the performance gain with 7200 rpm was, as expected, quite big - but the heat increase & battery life decrease was neglible (spelling?).

 

[RaPTuRe]

Fair enough but try, "I have" a D800, and I have two friends who both have D800/I8600 (all but identical systems). Furthermore, try a search for basically ANY notebook and you will find that a lot of people report heat problems. In addition to this, the two main causes of heat will be primarily 'processor' and secondarily 'memory' (not GPU as many would speculate, as memory has no active, nor even passive cooling). Anand was quite correct that the heat and battery life effects were not great. The fact that the i8600 can run at up to 1.2GHz with no need for active cooling is testament to it's cooling efficiency.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[superboss]

I have the 8600 with ATI 9600 128 graphics and 7200 rpm drive, I done have any heat problems.

cheers


Opel Superboss, now that was a car!