2 gb or 3 gb memory

[avg1joe]

I have a laptop running windows 7 with 2gb of memory. My wife has a laptop running vista with 1gb of memory. She wants to upgrade to 2gb and I know that vista will run better with 2gb. Both are 32-bit systems. Hers supports dual channel but mine doesn't.

I was reading some forums and noticed that although the manufacturers don't admit it, both our laptops will support up to 3gb of memory (but bsod with 4). We both surf the web and I use mine to watch tv with hulu. Occasionally I play some games but they tend to be older ones.

If I upgrade to 3gb in either system will that extra gig of memory be used or will it just sit there? Will I notice a performance increase with 3gb?

 

[TheForce]

32 bit windows OS are limited to (technically) 4 Gb but Microsoft further restricts the memory to 3.5 Gb. You'll most likely need to add memory to 4Gb and lose the half gig to get all your OS can hold. If you reinstall your OS to 64 bit and if your laptop hardware supports it, you could get more ram but unless you'll be running applications that require it, don't bother because you'll hardly notice the difference.

Normally, windows will split the memory equally between the Kernal and applications but I heard of a hack you can do to force windows to restrict the Kernal to 1 Gb and that leaves the remainder for applications. Frankly, as states earlier, unless your application requires this memory, you won't get much advantage with a half gig of system ram.

The only computer I have more than 4Gb of ram in is for editing HD video. That machine is a quad core 8Gb vista 64 bit and it runs that application adequately.

 

[diogen]

I have a laptop running windows 7 with 2gb of memory. My wife has a laptop running vista with 1gb of memory.

What are the brand/models?

If 3GB is an option and 4GB is not, the only one way I can imagine this is 1GB built-into the motherboard
and one available slot for upgrade that can accommodate either 1GB or 2GB sticks. BSOD-ing 4GB sounds strange: have you tried?

Up to 4GB - the more the better. Especially with Vista/Win7.
I'd recommend reinstalling the OS from scratch after you upgrade.

Diogen.

EDIT:
If you have two RAM slots and you tried 2x2GB that BSOD, most likely the RAM timing is wrong. Try slow memory(533) instead of fast (800).
Normally, if a laptop doesn't support 4GB, it just won't boot.

 

[avg1joe]

Mine is the one running windows 7 and that is the one I was thinking of bumping from 2 up to 3gb. It is a HP c762nr. Crucial says that it does not use dual channel mode. I found a fair amount on the net saying that HP says 2gb is the max but in reality people have gotten 3gb (2+1gb) to work but 4gb (2+2gb) did not work in real world situations.

My question is: Has anyone upgraded from 2 to 3gb of memory and did you see an actual increase in performance on a 32-bit system?

 

[TheForce]

DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V • 128Meg x 64

is the spec SODIMM for your system board. If you have 2Gb now, likely you have i Gb in each slot and none open. The system specs says you have two accessible slots. Most manufacturers tend to fill the slots with a matched set, so if you have 2G they have two 1 Gb modules. This way they get to sell you more since youll need to trash one module to upgrade but you may want to just go to comp USA and see what you can buy for cheap and give it a try. The HP specs on that board in your laptop does say a max of 1 Gb per slot so if someone got it to work around that it is either a fake spec or they hacked something or are lying.
2+2 may work but you won't get anymore available than 3.2 or 3.5 depending on your system because of the 32 bit OS.

Will it do more? Theoretically yes but whether you notice or not will depend on what aps you run. Ram is cheap enough I'd just max it out and work with what you get.

BTW- I looked up the specs on the intel chipset for your MB and it also sets the maximum Ram accessed as 2 Gb.

 

[diogen]

From quick googling it doesn't look like this laptop supports 4GB but does 3GB.

Dual channel always requires two identical RAM sticks. Hence, 3GB will disable dual channel.

Performance improvements when going from 2GB to 3GB are very dependent on software used.
You won't see noticeable improvements running generic office apps. But running a lot of apps at the same time or RAM-heavy apps will benefit from RAM increase.

Diogen.

 

[Ramy]

The more memory the better I always say. You might need it in the future if you don't need it now.

 

[avg1joe]

I appreciate the advice. I decided to go with the 2gb total in each machine for now. I think my money would be better spent upgrading processors.