Upgrading laptop memory

stinky101

Hi,
I am going to be buying a laptop soon, probably from Dell and was wondering weather this wasa good idea...
When customising the laptop choose the lowest amont of RAM available and then buy some from a site such as ebuyer.co.uk like http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=65727
and load than in myself?
Or does it have to be dell specific components?

Thanks

timread

Dell charge way over the market price for additional memory. If you want to order it with a minimum and then add more, I'd recommend using Crucial themselves (rather than the store you linked to): http://www.crucial.com/uk/

They have excellent service, quick delivery & lifetime warranty on RAM (no I don't work for them - we use them at work a lot!). Also you can use their Memory Advisor Tool to get memory that is guaranteed to work with your laptop.

One thing - bear in mind that if you're adding memory to a laptop, most only have 2 RAM slots. So for e.g. you want to end up with 1GB - you'd need to order it from Dell with 1x512 and then add 1x512 from Crucial. Unless it's cheaper to order it with 1x256 and then buy 2x512 from Crucial!

stinky101

i read, maybe a few years ago that some companies like dell only allow dell branded components to be installed on their systems? is that not true?

timread

I don't think Dell could dodge their warranty obligations just because a user has upgraded the amount of memory in the PC/laptop.

You can read the full terms of Dell's warranty here (scroll down to section 7):

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/emea/topics/footer/terms?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~lt=popup

Basically - You'd be responsible for any damage caused by incorrectly installing additional products, and for removing them during a service carried out by Dell. If you're uncertain about how to add more memory, Dell give user instructions on how to do this in their manuals. Adding more memory to a Dell laptop is pretty straightforward.

In practice, in case what I've said has worried you, Dell use industry standard memory and Crucial supply industry standard memory guaranteed to work on your system if you use the Memory Advisor Tool. You should be fine as long as you fit it correctly.

blinky

stinky101 wrote:

i read, maybe a few years ago that some companies like dell only allow dell branded components to be installed on their systems? is that not true?

Not for memory. They do have a habit of using non standard power connectors on the motherboard (they swap some of the wires around and change the wiring colours so they appear standard).

Compaq used to be one of the worst - even going as far as proprietry screws and floppy drives. Apple used to be terrible for proprietry stuff - one of the reasons they didn't catch on as well.