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One Stick or Two?
I'm thinking about upgrading the memory on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop from 512 MB to 1 gig. The question I have is, should I get a single 1 gig stick or two 512 MB sticks. I recall reading somewhere that the two stick configuration is faster because a single chip has much denser circuitry and thus takes longer for the electrical signals to propagate through all the gates in the memory.
Also 533 Mhz RAM will run fine on a system that supports only 400 Mhz RAM right?
Sorry if these questios have been asked before, just link me to the post. Thanks!
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In laptops, always get the biggest stick you can. Keep the one you have too.
If you only need 1GB (most don't need more), just add another stick of 512MB. You won't be *needing* any more.
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Or buy a large stick and sell the smaller one to get back some of your money. Always put the larger stick in Slot 1 or A (whichever you have).
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I'm pretty sure my laptop supports dual channel and up to 533 Mhz RAM, in which case getting two 512 sticks would be better. Also, I heard mixing up brands/types of RAM can have weird results. I'm pretty sure, my laptop comes with crappier 400 Mhz RAM, but I want to upgrade to 533 Mhz.
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Don't assume that your RAM is "crappy". Open it up and look instead of guessing. It's usually Crucial RAM and it's easy to match by searching by "CT number" at Crucial.com.
I have yet to see a notebook with dual-channel RAM capability. It makes no sense since the makers only bundle one stick. If they put in two, the users would revolt because they would be forced to toss out both sticks on upgrading.
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Using one sick of 1024MB will give you longer battery life than 2x512MB and that is always a consideration with a lappy.
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As for whether my laptop is dual channel or not I gathered from this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=17945
battery life isn't too big of deal since I don't carry it around with me too much. I mainly use it as a "mobile desktop" so I can move it more easily than a desktop to the various places I live at around the year. I care most about the balance between price and performance.
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