2gb or 4gb of ram

[uPsDdOWN 10+ year member]

It's a laptop. Lenovo ThinkPad T60. It uses DDR 200-Pin SO-DIMM ram. Optimal speed being DDR 667 (PC2 5300).
I've read many reviews on people combining a higher rate of Ram with the original lower rate Ram card in their laptops that are very similar to mine.

results from crucial . com scan???

what were the upgrade options it recomended as far as memory slots? Should have give you two or three at the bottom of the results page.

p.s... have you run a registry cleanup on it yet? or used any optimization tools? I dont know your skill level but I HIGHLY recomend tuneup utilities 2007 or 2008

http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

 

[Tiger Bass 5,000+ posts]

And I already ordered a Crucial 2GB DDR2 667 PC3 5300.

For much less than that though.

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

With memory being as cheap as it is, why not go for 4GB Ram.

As for what OS, personally ive several variations of Windows. I was with the XP crowd for a while and saw no reason to switch. Said screw it, and tried Vista.

Took some getting used to, but if your PC and properly run Vista. Chances are your PC sucks. It just takes a little getting used to, but overall I like it better then XP. Ive tried Vista Home Premium 32bit and Ultimate 64bit so far. Ultimate, was a bit grumpy at 1st (install it with no more then 2GB RAM until all updated are installed) after all updates were done, it pretty much ironed out any issues. Still messing around with it though, guess having 2 HDD's comes in handy from time to time.

The only thing I need to get rid of now is the integrated card. I have enough RAM to not worry about it though.

Also any 32bit version of Vista will usually see no more then about 3.37GB RAM (thats what I had on the 32bit HP version)

 

[Tiger Bass 5,000+ posts]

Will the computer still operate correctly with 4GB before I add Vista? And how do you know which Vista you're getting, between the 32bit and 64bit?

 

[HitManSE 10+ year member]

Will the computer still operate correctly with 4GB before I add Vista? And how do you know which Vista you're getting, between the 32bit and 64bit?

Not really sure to be honest with you, I think what happens is it wont recognize all the RAM until its updated. Doubt it wont operate correctly because of it.

I just read that it should be installed that way across a few PC forums and figured why take a chance? Not that big a deal to install the RAM afterwards (not for a desktop anyway) I just installed it the way I read and havnt had too many issues.

As for knowing which one (64bit or 32bit) you're getting. Well, unless you just know, or its stated on the disc itself, you wont know until its installed and you check the system information of the computer under 'PC type'. If it says x64-based PC, you know you're running 64-bit. If it says x86 based, well then you're still at 32-bit.

I dont see too many issues with the 64 bit though. Over 95% of the programs ive ran on 32-bit work just fine on the 64-bit. Spyware removal and anti-virus programs however are different, it seems you need to get one made specifically to run on a 64-bit OS (as well as the others). Not that big an issue though because several of them exist. Giving Avast a try for now.

After messing around with 64-bit for a week or two, IMHO ive come to realize the claims of programs not running are greatly exaggerated. Been very stable overall.

I also realized that once installed it creates 2 Program Files folders, one for 64bit and one for x86 compatible programs.

 

[qtipextra 5,000+ posts]

It will run fine with 4GB. It just wont recognize it all. It will only use what it recognizes.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

If you are running the 32bit version of Vista, it is useless to run 4 gb of memory. I would also stick to XP for gaming, esp. with COD4, which is all I play. and laptops are a waste of money if you are a true gamer, because they are useless in a few years when you need to upgrade. Sorry, they are, until external vid processing becomes more of a reality.
My computer gets upgraded once a year when new games come out.

How is it useless ?
Based on prices here:

2 x 2 GB of RAM = $80 (3 - 3.5 GB useable in most systems (excluding SLI/Crossfire setups), supports dual channel)

1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB of RAM = $60 (doesn't support dual channel)

2 x 1 GB of RAM = $40 (supports dual channel)

So for $20 more than 3 GB, you get slightly more useable RAM (~10%) and operate in dual channel mode (up to twice the theoretical bandwidth) ... $20 is fuck all ...