Hi there,

today I was in the local computer store. I asked how much it would cost to upgrade the ram in my Asus M6B00N with an additional 1024MB module.

But the salesclerk said, it wouldn't make sense to insert more then 512MB additionally.

This notebook has already 512MB installed and a second slot is free to take an additional module.

But I wonder why it wouldn't make sense?

The notebook has an Intel Pentium M 1.80 GHz, 400 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 Cache CPU with the Intel 855PM Mobile Chip-set.

regards
jack

The salesman is obviously not thinking clearly. The only reason I can think that he'd suggest using a 512MB module instead of a 1GB module is because that way each slot has the same amount of memory and that allows it to run in dual channel mode, which gives it twice the bandwidth. However, dual channel mode doesn't really give that much of a performance increase (maybe 5% max) because the chipset can't process that much bandwidth.

In addition, the amount of memory is much more important than how much bandwidth it has, so I'd recommend just buying the 1GB module anyway. And if you want dual channel bandwidth, buy another 1GB module to replace your current 512MB one so you have the bandwidth as well as the capacity. Otherwise, don't worry about dual channel, as it's not that big of a deal.

Thank you!
I'll take the 1GB module.

I googled for that dual-channe thing. To me it looks as it wouldn't make sense due the marginal speedup.
Also I belive the Intel 855PM chipset doen't support dual channel anyway. At least the datasheet (pdf) dosen't say so.