Enough memory for BB

John_G66

I'm about to leap from dial up to BB, my laptop has 256mb of RAM, will this cope with BB. Should I slot in another 256mb ?

Cheers..............

Older_but_not_wiser_2

My laptop has 256MB of RAM, and it copes fine.

devizes18193

Memoory is like work space the more you have the more space programes have to work in & will be quicker .However what you have should do fine

spacker_2

256 is fine for Broad Band but I would get some more to speed up the PC anyway

RobMatPen

Yes upgrade.

Again, not because it's internet related - just because it's "system related".

Windows XP really needs 512Mb to run perfectly, and then becomes more "RAM hungry" if you start running extra programmes.

I would not purchase a second 256Mb chip, BUT RATHER replace your existing 256 chip with a 512Mb one. That way you will have 512Mb of RAM but also a spare slot in case you need to upgrade in the future. If you can afford it, add a second 512Mb chip so you're running 1024Mb (1Gb). 512Mb chips from the Kingston value range are only about £30 and RAM is very easy to fit. You will definitly notice a greater performance especially if you are multitasking on your PC (i.e. running several browsers or applications at the same time).

Another thing you might want to consider is checking if you've got a separate sound card becuase if you're using the onboard sound from the motherboard, then this will be competing for RAM too. If you get a dedicated soundcard (you can get good cheap SoundBlaster Audigys for about £18-20) then it will relieve some of the burden on your system's RAM. (Especially if you play music in the background when you are surfing the internet/using your pc.

Essentially - YES - upgrade your RAM - it's a very cheap return-on-investment upgrade.

spacker_2

RobMatPen wrote:

I would not purchase a second 256Mb chip, BUT RATHER replace your existing 256 chip with a 512Mb one.

Unless the top amount of RAM is 512 then 2 x 256 is all you can have

C_Ronaldo

with my BB supplier they have a "Is your pC compatible" and it will tell you what you have and what you need

tr3mor

RobMatPen wrote:

Yes upgrade.

Again, not because it's internet related - just because it's "system related".

Windows XP really needs 512Mb to run perfectly, and then becomes more "RAM hungry" if you start running extra programmes.

I would not purchase a second 256Mb chip, BUT RATHER replace your existing 256 chip with a 512Mb one. That way you will have 512Mb of RAM but also a spare slot in case you need to upgrade in the future. If you can afford it, add a second 512Mb chip so you're running 1024Mb (1Gb). 512Mb chips from the Kingston value range are only about £30 and RAM is very easy to fit. You will definitly notice a greater performance especially if you are multitasking on your PC (i.e. running several browsers or applications at the same time).

Why would you replace the 256MB he already has. Get yourself a 512MB stick and put it in the spare slot. You'll then have 768MB, enough for virtually everything you can throw at it on a laptop.

superscaper

tr3mor wrote:

Why would you replace the 256MB he already has. Get yourself a 512MB stick and put it in the spare slot. You'll then have 768MB, enough for virtually everything you can throw at it on a laptop.

In my experience it is far easier to swap out the RAM, unless you are getting the same brand RAM but even then you can get compatibility issues between ram sticks.

tr3mor

superscaper wrote:

In my experience it is far easier to swap out the RAM, unless you are getting the same brand RAM but even then you can get compatibility issues between ram sticks.

I can't say I've ever had a problem as long as you buy decent branded RAM. It's got to be worth trying anyway, as you'd get the 768MB for no more than the 512MB.

John_G66

Thanks for the advice folks.