Computer Upgrade?

[Bravo 1]

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop I got for less than $150 of my own money; it has a 2.9Ghz processor, an ATI Radeon 9700 Mobility and 512MB of RAM (that is, two slots of 256).

I'm considering upgrading my memory, BUT here's the catch, if I upgrade to 1024MB of RAM, I'll have to buy TWO new cards (to keep it balanced, it is not recommended to unbalance it on this laptop). However, if I want to upgrade it in the future I'll have to spend what I spent two times over!

...so, should I spend about 500 dollars on two cards of 1024MB of RAM (PC3200)?

...would it radically alter my performance? ...should I wait it out another year for the prices to go down?

[Regan]

Well being as it's going to be my job in the very near future, I suppose I should offer some advice ;D

I assume you're running XP, so you need lots of RAM.
512Mb should be enough, depending on the speed of your HD (swap file usage) and whether or not the ATi card uses part of the 512Mb.

I've never had 1Gb of ram, but running WinMe there was an increase in speed when I switched to 512, but not enormous.

I don't think it's worth it and by the time RAM prices have gone down drastically your laptop's likely to be too slow for TES4

P.S. If you do decide to upgrade, find someone to buy your 2 sticks of 256Mb

[Bravo 1]

Thanks for the tips...

[faudau]

Well unlike WinME which doesn't like more than 512mb, WinXP loves more. To be honest 1024 will show improvements in games like Morrowind and others your speed will increase overall but depending on your budget that increase may not be justifiable.

If you plan with sticking with this system for a while I think it is worth it in the long run.

my 2 cents

[Bravo 1]

Come to think of it, I was just thinking about this a bit ago. I can afford to get a 9800 Mobility with 256MB for Easter (split the $400 with my dad)... on the RAM, I shall wait another year ($700 is quite a bit for two sticks of 1024 and just buying one stick of 1024 is not an option as the laptop need them balanced ).

However, should I bother with all this because sometime in the future, new HDDs will come out that are not longer rotating media but more like RAM and Flash drives...much faster. Atm, you can get one for $10,000 and it's the size of a computer by itself...but who knows...and I don't think I can upgrade that on my laptop...

...so is this worth the investment? 2048MB RAM and the Radeon 9800 are the maximum I can put on my laptop (maximum recommended and with laptops that usually means that's the red line)