NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Business (Vostro, Latitude, Precision) › Vista Home Premium- 2GB vs. 4GB?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Vista Home Premium- 2GB vs. 4GB?

post #1 of 17
12/20/07 at 8:53pm
Thread Starter 
Greetings,

I have been searching all over various forums and tech sites for an answer. Currently I have 2 GB of ram in my 1520 that's running Home Premium. I've done a clean install after adding the 1 GB Turbo Cache module. It was only about $30.00 and figured worth the risk to try for performance gains. I haven't felt much there.

Does anyone have any positive feedback on performance when upgrading from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM? I am running 32 BIT and don't care that the full 4 GB are not recognized. I don't want to waste money unless it will make some difference.

Aside from the clean install, I've been using X-Setup Pro, Tweak UAC and TweakIV for optimizing the settings for a little speed. I've also tweaked the services according to Black Viper's web site. The software tweaking has helped immensely.

I appreciate anyone's feedback on upgrading to 4 GB of ram. Sorry if this has been an old discussion getting beat up once again. However, prices are right around $75.00 for 4 GB of G Skill from Newegg.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 17
12/20/07 at 8:56pm
I am watching this thread, too. I have 3gb on my new m1530 and want to know if upgrading to 4gb will help in any way. I am using Vista Ultimate 32bit
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 17
12/20/07 at 9:02pm
In my opinion, you won't see that much of a gain going from 2GB to 4GB. There will be some instances where it will probably help (Photoshop CS3 ) but overall, not much of a difference. I am running Vista Business on my Dell Desktop and I had 1GB of RAM when I started. Let me just say that this was a painful experience. I upped my RAM to 3GB and the difference was truly amazing. My Vista Experience score was at 2.1 with 1GB of RAM (and the Radeon X300 128MB GPU) After I upped the RAM to 3GB and got that Nvidia 7950GX2, my Vista Experience score went to 4.7. (The processor is the limiting factor now )
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 17
12/20/07 at 9:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mb67 View Post
In my opinion, you won't see that much of a gain going from 2GB to 4GB. There will be some instances where it will probably help (Photoshop CS3 ) but overall, not much of a difference. I am running Vista Business on my Dell Desktop and I had 1GB of RAM when I started. Let me just say that this was a painful experience. I upped my RAM to 3GB and the difference was truly amazing. My Vista Experience score was at 2.1 with 1GB of RAM (and the Radeon X300 128MB GPU) After I upped the RAM to 3GB and got that Nvidia 7950GX2, my Vista Experience score went to 4.7. (The processor is the limiting factor now )
Yep I have seen the results of going from 1gb to 3gb, it makes a huge difference.

I agree that going from 3 to 4gb would make little to no difference so I will leave it the way it is. I do alot of CS3 and this M1530 does quite good in the field. Thanks and have a good X-Mas!
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 17
12/20/07 at 9:06pm
Well, what are you doing with your laptop?

If you are running games with it, or running multiple apps simultaneously, then 4GB will help you (~3GB will be recognized). As a rough estimate, 2GB in Vista is approximately 1GB under WinXP... if >1GB in WinXP would hlep you, then >2GB in Vista will help.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 17
12/20/07 at 10:09pm
IMO it's not going to get too much more responsive for you, at least noticeably.

Now, even though the desktop I had, had 800mhz ram, I had 2gb of ram in there and things felt pretty snappy, and seemed to be basically the best I could get. Vista is just going to be sluggish a little until they get SP2 out is my guess.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 17
12/21/07 at 3:44am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the feedback so far. I realize that somewhere just over 3 GB will get recognized. It seems that the sweet spot for Vista is 3 GB and 2 GB is just not quite enough. I started with 1GB, which sucked. Then I bought 2 GB which was a huge improvement.

While I am making this post, my CPU usage is at 4% and physical memory is at 36% (753 MB). I'd think that going from 2 GB to almost 4 GB might make some difference with Vista. I know that with XP 2 GB is really pretty adequate.

I'll most likely spend that money and put in 4 GB to see how my 1520 responds. I plan on probably installing Vista Home Premium on my XPS 410 this spring and adding another gig of ram to it depending on my 1520 performance.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 17
12/21/07 at 4:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktme9300 View Post
Thanks for the feedback so far. I realize that somewhere just over 3 GB will get recognized. It seems that the sweet spot for Vista is 3 GB and 2 GB is just not quite enough. I started with 1GB, which sucked. Then I bought 2 GB which was a huge improvement.

While I am making this post, my CPU usage is at 4% and physical memory is at 36% (753 MB). I'd think that going from 2 GB to almost 4 GB might make some difference with Vista. I know that with XP 2 GB is really pretty adequate.

I'll most likely spend that money and put in 4 GB to see how my 1520 responds. I plan on probably installing Vista Home Premium on my XPS 410 this spring and adding another gig of ram to it depending on my 1520 performance.
Yeah, I've got the XPS m1530 on order (In shipment Status! ) with 3GB of RAM. I almost went with two to save some money, but it will be worth it to have the 3GB right away.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 17
12/21/07 at 11:45am
I can't speak about Dell's specifically but I am running 4gb in my IFL90 with vista home prem. x64 It runs very well for well for me even with mostly 32bit applications. I opted not to buy a ready boost card initially since I knew 4gb would be more than enough for what I'm doing. Most of what I have read says that RB makes more of a difference on low memory systems. This is also where any added performance would be had. On a low memory system you get more paging to the hard drive which is a performance loss. It seems to me that RB is just a low cost option for the less beefy computers out there. I think most people are finding that there is a point between high and low physical memory where RB can help. Physical memory is always going to be the best performance wise it never hurts to add more, but only you can determine if its cost effective...or if cost is even in question. Monitor your computer with task manager and see if you are even getting close to max memory usage this should be a good indicator. If you do decide to buy more memory, you may want to do some performance comparisons before, after, and maybe even after with RB card removed.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 17
12/26/07 at 5:14am
Thread Starter 
I upgraded my XPS 410 back to Vista Home Premium. It's probably an unfair comparison. Prior to the upgrade on the OS, I added another gig of RAM for a total of 3 GB. It has seemed to perform just as snappy as MCE 2005 with 2 GB of RAM. I did do some tweaking as usual to the OS that feels like it makes a difference. No self respecting geek runs it stock.

I'm pretty satisfied with the performance of my 1520 with 2 GB of RAM in the unfair comparison. I'll probably just leave it alone. The applications are almost as responsive as my desktop rig.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 17
12/26/07 at 2:50pm
Well it really does not matter anymore for me. My brand new M1530 would reboot for no reason. I could be in the other room and it would reboot without even touching it! It also would not sit level on a table, any table. Everytime I would type it would rock back and forth.

After 3 Dell XPS units, I am done and ordered a ThinkPd T61p with 2.8 MHz processor. I had a T60p and it was nice. The T61p comes with 4gb ram and Vista Ultimate so the point is moot.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 17
12/26/07 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by greggebhardt View Post
I am watching this thread, too. I have 3gb on my new m1530 and want to know if upgrading to 4gb will help in any way. I am using Vista Ultimate 32bit
With 32-bit, if you install 4gb ram you probably won't even see it.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 17
12/27/07 at 4:57am
Thread Starter 
I haven't had any issues with the last four Dell systems that I have pruchased. I bought all of them off the Dell Outlet and no problems period. Two were laptops and two were desktops.

Just about the first thing I do when I get a system is format the drive and clean install. I tweak the services install some utilities to improve the OS efficiencies and install the rest of my applications. There is no manufacturer that is able to please everyone 100% of the time.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 17
12/27/07 at 8:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ktme9300 View Post
There is no manufacturer that is able to please everyone 100% of the time.
I was just hoping for one out of three

the T61p is nothing fancy but everything works.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 17
12/28/07 at 1:12pm
Depending on what Anti-virus you use you might see more of a performance gain removing it and going with one that has less of a footprint like Avast or AVG. Norton and McAfee for Vista are in my opinion worse than any computer virus you could ever get because they are so bloated and resource hungry.

However, if you can score a copy of Norton or McAfee corporate through your employer I'd go for it. The only reason the corporate editions of those products don't suck is because IT Departments would drop them in less than a second if they were as bloated as the consumer product.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 17
1/2/08 at 10:48am
You will always benefit from maxing out your RAM, both in performance and for the most part, multitasking. While yes the improvements from 2 GB to 4GB (only 3.5 seen in anything less than Vista Ultimate etc.) you still benefit. Having as much overhead as possible is never a bad thing.

I bought 4GB and replaced the two in my Vostro 1500 why? Because it was only $100, 800Mhz (timings run faster on 667Mhz system =) ) and it my system technically gets 1.5Gb more ram to play with if needed. And thats the kicker for those of you who strictly reply "you will not see much improvement" Thats not the point. The point is because you can do it cheaply right now. If 4GB was more than 75-$100 right now say like $250 I would say save your money.

Its cheap now though so max it out.

-D
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 17
1/6/08 at 1:25am
Info from Dells website:

Quote:
To the customers who has selected 4 GB of RAM on their systems:
Please be advised that although 4 GB will be installed and reflected in the BIOS of your system, 3.2 GB or less will be displayed in the System’s Information.

Why will 3.2 GB or less be shown on my System’s Information?
Due to a limitation of the Windows 32 bit OS and the hardware architecture, only 3.2 GB of RAM can be utilized and reflected on the system’s information. Some applications such as graphic cards share the working memory, so the more such applications you install, the less your available working memory will appear.

If I can only use 3.2 GB, what is the benefit in buying 4 GB?
(for notebook only)
In order for the dual channel to function properly, it is necessary for the memory to be set in pairs. In a notebook, there are only two memory slots which enables a configuration of 1GB(2 X 512MB), 2 GB(2 X 1GB) and 4GB(2 X 2GB). Even though the OS can only utilize 3.2 GB, 4 GB is still necessary in order for the dual channel to function.
On the other hand if you would like to take up the option of 3Gb in a notebook, this will give you a combination of 1x1Gb + 1x2Gb which are not in pairs. Hence this will not support Dual Channel technology.

Can I opt for 3 GB instead?
(for Desktop only)
Yes, you can. We now offer the option of having 3 GB installed in your system. In this configuration, you will have 2 X 1 GB plus 2 X 512MB which equals to 3 GB. Since they are in pairs, the Dual Channel is supported. This only works for Desktops as there are 4 memory slots.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Forums › Dell Business (Vostro, Latitude, Precision) › Vista Home Premium- 2GB vs. 4GB?