Can I add RAM to my laptop?
 

There you go, how do I "pimp my ride" so to speak?

It's a Toshiba Satellite and I really like it. I have 512k now, but I don't know what type or where to look etc...

Thanks Island,

That's a great site!

I've read in several computer magazines and also online that anything over 512 megs of ram is a waste unless you're using very ram intensive programs. A faster hard drive might be another way to go.

I'll second that. I got 1G sticks for my laptop from Crucial, and got them for a lot less than what Dell wanted at the time. When they arrived, the install took about a minute and a half. Just be sure to raise your virtual memory limits (paging file) accordingly.

However, DD74 makes an excellent point. The HD is currently the week link on my PC. I would recommend getting the fastest HD you can find!

More ram is always good for a laptop, since more ram == less disk swapping == more power effecient. Personally I have 512mb in my dual cpu desktop system and only use swap space when I play games and do something else cpu intensive like compiling a large program at the same time...

RAM is the cheapest speed enhancer there is, otherwise you need to look at bus speeds, processor speeds and that means a new computer.

512MB is a lot of memory for most uses. Unless you are working with very large graphics file, etc, you might not need more memory.

Go to Task Manager and see how much memory you are using, use Performance Monitor to see how much you are hitting the page file, and listen to see how often the hard drive is accessing. If you aren't swapping to the hard drive much, then more memory will be of little benefit.

The hard drive in laptops are generally 4200 or at best 5400 rpm, it's a HUGE bottleneck especially for a us creative types with large scratch files.

I replaced my 80 gb 5400rpm with a 60 gb 7200 and the box flies.

Currently your only choice is from Hitachi and 60 gb is as big as they go.

Mine has been in almost a year and has been rock solid, surprisingly it's also on the quiet side.

Take your old drive and put it in an external portable enclosure.

One thing to do first is to open the RAM cover and see whats installed currently. If its 2 256 sticks then you need to buy differently than if there is one 512 stick installed AND an open slot available.

Agree about the hard drive and disagree with the RAM concerns. I have 1 gig on my laptop and 1.5 gig on my desktop. More memory almost always helps and more room and a faster hard drive always helps. Just went from 30 to 60 gig on my Dell laptop and it flies...

JoeA