Sentia 3450 Adding Memory

I planned to upgrade the memory to 2GB myself as well. I'm looking at the Mushkin 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz Sodimm.

Is it necessary to call Alienware support for the walk thru when doing the upgrade? Will it void my warranty if I do it myself without calling?

FTLOSM:
Crucial, Kingston, Mushkin, Corsair,... are all great manufacturers of memory.

I ordered those 2 modules : Infineon 1GB SO-Dimm DDR2 PC2-5300S 200PIN, 667MHz for the lappy.

Infineon is a good brand too, often used in HP laptop.

512 has always been the sweet spot for mainstream XP useage.
moving to 1 gig was really only necessary for gamers and power users that run photoshop while encoding a dvd, and watching another...

In most cases, 2 gigs actually is slower than 1 unless your a super power user.
Its hard to explain, and different systems handle it differently, but in general for mainstream useage, 2gigs is slower than 1- although alot of time although there is not human percieveable while in some cases its rather obvious.

If 512 is doing you fine Id recomend goin to a gig just for the headroom, 2 gigs will be slower and a waste of money.

On the other hand Vista is RAM HUNGRY, although its been getting better with each build, a couple builds ago 512 was not really runnable as it paged to 1.5-2 gigs, but the last 3 builds are greatly improved, but even then 1 gig would be the new (512) for average use.
But in this case, hold off the upgrade as the ram will be much cheaper by the time vista hits your laptop.

Class dismissed.

2GB slower than 1GB ?? HUhuh, wonder where you found this infos

BTW, you can easily install 2GB on your m3450 mobile, allows 256MB for the video and enjoy the next upcoming windows vista

No - What Arch said is true. 2GB RAM is proven to have higher latency than 1GB unless you're truly using all that power. Especially with Duo Core processors, you're less memory dependant. If you really need the power, go for it, but otherwise it's silly.

I have 1GB dual-channeled on my m3450 and, unless I'm gaming or multi-tasking, my benchmarkers estimate I'm using 488 RAM while running Photoshop, Premiere, Visual Studio '05 and word processors.

I went for the 1GB for head room just like Arch said.

Lets see, .... maybe any of the myriad of hardware design/manufacturing/engineering and software classes I took during my time as a university undergraduate student in Computer Science....... But hey what do all those Ph.D.'s that taught me know or even all the industry history that the material is based on.....pffft

Sorry, i wouldn't offense you

BTW, i tried to remove a 1GB memory module, and running photoshop and working on a photo i did.

I can tell that personnally, i can see changes, it's working so far faster with 2GB memory modules, and windows seems to work better and easier.

I'm running windows xp home sp2.

But, maybe it's in my head, or maybe it's due that i didn't go to high computer school

Please don't take it bad, but i like to argue and those fighting text reply

I opened mine up yesterday morning, but I took a screen shot of a program called CPU-Z first to see the details on the RAM. CPU-Z said the manufactur of the RAM is PDP Systems. Also in the instruction manual they say if you are going to replace the CPU to call their tech support so you don't void their warranty, but there wasn't a disclaimer for upgrading the RAM and they gave great instructions and black/white diagrams of where to take the screws out and which panel to remove and how to remove/insert the RAM.
I'm going to try and attach two pictures, hopefully this works cuz its my first time.

No, what actually happened is that I ordered the m3450 on Sept 5th with 512mbs and ordered 2gbs of kingston memory from buy.com. The laptop was delayed forever, and I received an email after 2.5 weeks saying the 512mb memory option was not available and they were upgrading me to 1gb for free. I received the laptop on friday, sept 29th, and it came with 1gb. It ran pretty well but I always have many applications open when I use the computer, so I've noticed it runs better for me with 2gbs than it did with 1gb. I didn't use it enough with 1gb to tell you that I've noticed a "big" difference but I have noticed a difference and for me it was worth the cost. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

Joey

I agree with joey, as i also did the tests, the laptop is faster with 2GB, but not during the boot, you'll see no differences, bu in windows and running applications, you'll notice better performace.

But, a high school in this post, at upp, said the laptop is slower with 2GB

So, who trusts ?? 2 guys that tried it, or a guy that learned i at school on a book ?

Yeah, i'm a bad tongue

Actually I do want to sell them! I'm not sure what a fair market price is....perhaps you should email me.

Joey

Some one is confusing high skool with a University education...... maybe he should have finished high skool and got his tongue corrected so that people might believe him...

I trust experience. We said 2GB was slower than 1GB unless you're a true power user. You went and tested 2GB under stress and say we're wrong?

Let me explain this in depth.

Memory does not affect speed the same way upgrading a processor would. If your processor was a 2.0GHz and you upgraded to 3.0GHz you would know you'll receive an automatic change. Upgrading RAM does not work like this.

It all depends on how you're using your machine. 1GB is faster than 2GB and there are times the opposite is true. It depends on you, and, sometimes, the size of the sticks.

If you multi-task with resource hogging programs or work in a server enviorment your needs might exceed 1GB. In this situation your machine would switch to virtual memory which is much, much slower, but unless you're going way over 1GB it's still not worth it.

Run a benchmark with 2x512 and 1x1024 and you'll see the 2x512 will actually receive slightly higher scores. This is not because of dual-channel. 512 clock better than 1GB sticks. If it were possible to have 4x512 on the 945GM chipset I'd say go for it if you really wanted to, but the fact remains that upgrading from 2x512 to 2x1024 would actually slow you down unless you're, again, multi-tasking CPU hogs.

Another scenario is overclocking. 2x1024 is better for overclocking than 4x512 would be. However, overclocking is for gaming and you bought a Sentia, so that should tell me you wanted a business/school laptop. Plus, OC'ing breaks your warranty, my Sentia runs just great with its warranty in tact.

Summary:
Due to the limitation of 2 RAM slots on the Intel 945GM in the Sentia m3450 2x512 out performs 2x1024 except in extreme circumstances. It all depends on the user.

I didn't learn that from a book.

I have tested this, many people have tested this.

This is all, of course, when dealing with RAM of equal specifications.