[Niles]

I have 2 laptops but the older one (a Toshiba) has developed a fault with regular crashes. I have removed the hard drive for use as a back up drive but am also wondering about making use of the memory in the other laptop (a Dell).
The one apparent problem is that the Toshiba has PC 2100 memory whereas the Dell has PC 2700 memory.
Does anyone know if they are compaptible and would the Dell benefit from the installation of the extra 256mb even if it is rated as being slower?

Any help graetly appreciated.

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One of two things can happen.

1. the computer crashes because it won't run PC2100 memory
Download the manual for the computer from dell to see it it says anything there.
2. The computer runs but may be slower because all the memory will run at the PC2100 speed.
You may not even notice any speed difference because the memory sticks are very close to each other.


SRX660

[SRX660]

One of two things can happen.

1. the computer crashes because it won't run PC2100 memory
Download the manual for the computer from dell to see it it says anything there.
2. The computer runs but may be slower because all the memory will run at the PC2100 speed.
You may not even notice any speed difference because the memory sticks are very close to each other.


SRX660

[Niles]

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look at the Dell website.

[Niles]

Hope you don't mind a follow up question, but I can't find an answer to this. Assuming everything works ok if I put the 256mb of pc2100 ram in the dell, will 512mb running at a slower speed be better than 256mb of pc2700 ram?

[SRX660]

If your running XP, yes it will make a difference. This is only because XP will basically use 175 or more MB of your memory just to run itself. This does 2 things . It means the OS will start using the swap file sooner to leave some memory open for program use. It also means there is not a lot of memory before it starts using the swap and when that happens the computer slow's dramatically.

With 512 Mb of memory the computer has a lot more room to use before using the swap file so the computer stays faster the whole time you use it.

I did a test with a 150 MB jpg picture on my last computer to show a customer the speed difference. It took 18 seconds to open it with 256 MB of memory and 6 seconds with 512 MB. This convinced the customer to buy the extra memory. If you are use to messing with large graphics or video files you can appreciate what more memory can do.

If you are running Win 98 or Win ME the extra memory will only make a slight difference. It still helps but 512 Mb is about all they can use. There is even a problem with Win 98 using more than 512 Mb of memory.

SRX660

[Niles]

Thanks for the advice. The Dell is running XP so I will give it a go with the other module and see how it performs.