Hi all,

I've just found a 256 module at a reasonable price for my Dell laptop (90 euros). But, nonetheless, it's an amount of money that will bring some difficulties to me, so I was wondering: for your knowledge, upgrading from 128 to 384 is worth it? I'll see some results in render times and management of large files?

I'm willing to upgrade, but I'd love to read what all you people already know about it, so I can make a decision.

Many thanx,
Stefano

Well, AFAIK, it will make possible to open bigger files and to manipulate the files easier. Render times are processor dependent. BTW, are they the same speed? If not, the memory will work at the speed of the slower module.

-- erlik

Render times are cpu dependent unless you have to start hitting your hard drive cos the file is too big. So, the more ram will allow you to work more easily with larger files and may help in render times for larger files. (As Erlik said in many less words). I did the 128->320 jump and things got much friendlier all round for me.

Dreams are just nightmares on prozac...
Digital WasteLanD

I agree with Flak. I jumped from 128 to 388 and the file size I could comfortable work on went from 25mb to 90 mb. Worth the investment to me. :) Cie

Go for it Stefano! You can't have enough RAM; both my machines have 1Gb and I'd still like more :-D

Be careful if you happen to run Win '98. It's not known for being able to handle higher memory very well. I had 256 Mb and it was less stable than with 128 Mb... I decided I wanted more and used plugged in another 512 Mb and I had to reboot about every other 5 minutes. Installed XP and everything's really fine.

When working with 2D or 3D software its better to have more memory for that they know what to do with it, not like other software like word processor and the like. Kylara: i never had a problem with my Windows 98 with 512 MB of ram on it, your system was having something weird.

For most versions of Windows (all but the oldest), 128MB just isn't enough. Too much swapping to the hard drive. 384 will help everything run much smoother and faster, though rendering may not increase much in speed (if your files are small).

Be careful with the purchase however. If the motherboard is old, say, less than a 700mhz P3, it may not support 'high-density' SDRAM memory. The older motherboards recognize low-density (128mb and below), but not all understand the high-density, which are all of the 512mb chips and a good percentage of the 256. If you are running a newer machine than that, it should work.

After installing the memory and rebooting, your system should see the increase immediately. Before opening up critical files (and possibly corrupting them if the computer blue-screens), open lots of other programs and switch between them rapidly, over and over, possibly even leaving the system on for a day or so. If the new memory isn't stable in your system you may have spontaneous reboots.

Good luck, once you are running 384 you will never want to touch a 128 machine again.

Ryan

Thanks a lot for your suggestions, I think I'll definitely buy that. As for the compatibility problem, it's not an issue, because the only one that I can buy is the original module provided by Dell for the specific laptop I have (this makes for the un-reasonable prices). Thanx again, Stefano