Laptop Ram upgrade questions...

kingie · 07-10-2006, 06:29 AM

i am considering getting a ram upgrade on my laptop. Specs are:

CPU: Mobile Intel Pentium M 760, 2000 MHz (15 x 133)
Motherboard: TOSHIBA Satellite M40 Intel Alviso i915PM
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 (128 MB)
Sound Card: Intel 82801FBM ICH6-M - AC'97 Audio Controller [B-2]
RAM: 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM)

if i upgrade to 2 gig ram then will the increase in performance (gaming) be worth the cash as i cant upgrade the CPU. will it be a waste of $ for a small increase? ive been told i can only upgrade ram and hdd on a laptop. is that true? Also the ram is two x 512mb. i think toshiba laptops only have 2 ram slots so will 1.5 g ram be any good if i only buy one x 1gig ram?

AdmnPower · 07-10-2006, 06:35 AM

first off depending on the laptop, you may actually be able to change the graphics card, also you can change the processor, i've seen it done but you're very limited by the socket type and it requires you to completely tear your laptop appart, check to make sure that your laptop supports the type of combination you are thinking about getting, i know i recently bought a 256 chip of ram for an older laptop which didn't work because i found out it only supports 128meg chips, in regards to how much you should buy, i'd think 1.5g would be good if your computer would support it because you don't have a dual core processor i'm not sure you could take full advantage of 2 gig so it may go to waste, i don't think it would hurt anything if you wanted to go for 2 gig anyway

kingie · 07-10-2006, 06:46 AM

i went yesterday to Harvey Norman (Australian department store - not a specialised computer store) and talked to the tech guy there about upgrading ram. he seemed certain that it would support a 1 gig ram and he also was certain that you cant change processors or graphics cards in any laptops. only memory and hdds. is he full of sh*t? im pretty new at this stuff so ill be hesitant about pulling my laptop apart but i might have to go see a proper computer specialist. i bought the laptop last october so it should support a 1 gig ram. id like to upgrade the cpu and graphics card also so i might have to do a bit of research

AdmnPower · 07-10-2006, 07:02 AM

well first of all i talked to a computer repair technician friend of mine who owns his own computer shop who showed me a laptop he had torn appart. the guy was full of crap although in your context he is right no one without proper experience should try to change one out, also don't listen to him about the ram either, make sure you look it up in the computers instructions, you should be able to find them on the manufacturer's website, and finally you can only change graphics cards on a select few laptops. on most you can't change them especially ones with intigrated graphics. the only think you can probably do in upgrading processors is to get the same processor with a faster clock speed so it probably wouldn't be woth paying someone to do it for you if you could even find someone to do it.

kingie · 07-10-2006, 07:27 AM

i checked the manual about changing ram and found the part # for 1gig so thats all good. the instructions seem pretty easy too so ill be doing that soon. it doesnt say anything about graphics card changing though. ill check the toshiba website to see if i can find anything. so it comes down to whether or not its an integrated card right? is doubling the graphics card size (128 to 256) as good or better than doubling the ram ( 1g to 2g ) because im pretty sure the ram option is cheaper?

AdmnPower · 07-10-2006, 02:51 PM

i really doubt that your video card can be changed, personally i had never heard of it before my technician friend told me about it. But in reality gaming is a large percent video card, like 50-80% i think. Even if your card isnt intrigrated you may not be able to change it out

07-10-2006, 06:29 AM	#1 (permalink)
kingie Bronze Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 31	Laptop Ram upgrade questions... i am considering getting a ram upgrade on my laptop. Specs are: CPU: Mobile Intel Pentium M 760, 2000 MHz (15 x 133) Motherboard: TOSHIBA Satellite M40 Intel Alviso i915PM Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 (128 MB) Sound Card: Intel 82801FBM ICH6-M - AC'97 Audio Controller [B-2] RAM: 1024 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM) if i upgrade to 2 gig ram then will the increase in performance (gaming) be worth the cash as i cant upgrade the CPU. will it be a waste of $ for a small increase? ive been told i can only upgrade ram and hdd on a laptop. is that true? Also the ram is two x 512mb. i think toshiba laptops only have 2 ram slots so will 1.5 g ram be any good if i only buy one x 1gig ram?

07-10-2006, 02:51 PM	#6 (permalink)
AdmnPower VIP Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 1,129	i really doubt that your video card can be changed, personally i had never heard of it before my technician friend told me about it. But in reality gaming is a large percent video card, like 50-80% i think. Even if your card isnt intrigrated you may not be able to change it out __________________ Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 ghz 4 gig DDR 2 800 Sapphire Radeon 3870 X2 250 gig Seagate Barracuda Windows Vista

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07-10-2006, 06:35 AM	#2 (permalink)
AdmnPower VIP Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 1,129	first off depending on the laptop, you may actually be able to change the graphics card, also you can change the processor, i've seen it done but you're very limited by the socket type and it requires you to completely tear your laptop appart, check to make sure that your laptop supports the type of combination you are thinking about getting, i know i recently bought a 256 chip of ram for an older laptop which didn't work because i found out it only supports 128meg chips, in regards to how much you should buy, i'd think 1.5g would be good if your computer would support it because you don't have a dual core processor i'm not sure you could take full advantage of 2 gig so it may go to waste, i don't think it would hurt anything if you wanted to go for 2 gig anyway

07-10-2006, 06:46 AM	#3 (permalink)
kingie Bronze Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 31	i went yesterday to Harvey Norman (Australian department store - not a specialised computer store) and talked to the tech guy there about upgrading ram. he seemed certain that it would support a 1 gig ram and he also was certain that you cant change processors or graphics cards in any laptops. only memory and hdds. is he full of sh*t? im pretty new at this stuff so ill be hesitant about pulling my laptop apart but i might have to go see a proper computer specialist. i bought the laptop last october so it should support a 1 gig ram. id like to upgrade the cpu and graphics card also so i might have to do a bit of research

07-10-2006, 07:02 AM	#4 (permalink)
AdmnPower VIP Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Indiana, USA Posts: 1,129	well first of all i talked to a computer repair technician friend of mine who owns his own computer shop who showed me a laptop he had torn appart. the guy was full of crap although in your context he is right no one without proper experience should try to change one out, also don't listen to him about the ram either, make sure you look it up in the computers instructions, you should be able to find them on the manufacturer's website, and finally you can only change graphics cards on a select few laptops. on most you can't change them especially ones with intigrated graphics. the only think you can probably do in upgrading processors is to get the same processor with a faster clock speed so it probably wouldn't be woth paying someone to do it for you if you could even find someone to do it.

07-10-2006, 07:27 AM	#5 (permalink)
kingie Bronze Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 31	i checked the manual about changing ram and found the part # for 1gig so thats all good. the instructions seem pretty easy too so ill be doing that soon. it doesnt say anything about graphics card changing though. ill check the toshiba website to see if i can find anything. so it comes down to whether or not its an integrated card right? is doubling the graphics card size (128 to 256) as good or better than doubling the ram ( 1g to 2g ) because im pretty sure the ram option is cheaper?