[VeeDubkid]

Thanks in advance

Like the title says I just bought a new notebook (going back to school )
and I know that Dell way over charges for upgrades, so I figured I would get memory and a bigger HDD on my own.
The memory in question is----- 4GB PC2-5400 DDR2 / SODIMM Dual Channel Kit (2X2GB) / PN - OCZ2MV6674GK / OCZ
Also, is it OK to buy 4gigs now with a 32 bit OP and then when I am ready to upgrade to 64 bit I will all ready have the ram or should I just stick with the 2gigs?

Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions?
Also any help with a better hard drive? In the configuring screen it looked like you could have 2 hard drives in this notebook, am I correct in that?
Once again I really do appreciate any and all help, Jay AKA V-DUB AKA DUBZ

SPECS:

-- Inspiron 1720:
-- Intel® Core蒂 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
-- System Color:
-- Midnight Blue
-- MEMORY:
-- 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
-- LCD Panel:
-- Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)-- Video Card:
-- 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
-- Hard Drive:
-- Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
-- Operating System:
-- Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition
-- Network Card:
-- Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
-- Adobe Software:
-- Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
-- Optical Drive:
-- CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
-- Sound Card:
-- High Definition Audio 2.0
-- Wireless Networking Cards:
-- Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card
-- Camera:
-- Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
- Misc Productivity Software:
-- Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
-- Anti-Virus/ Security suite (pre-install):
-- No Subscription (30-day trial)
-- Battery Options:
-- 6-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery
-- Warranty & Service:
-- Get $75 Dell Dollars with 4 Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor,
Florida

- Dial-Up Internet Access:
-- 6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
-- Digital Media Editing Software:
-- Yahoo! Music Jukebox - Music Player
-- Bluetooth and Wireless USB:
-- Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
-- Dell Digital Entertainment:
-- No Entertainment software pre-installed
-- DOMS Camera Mod:
-- Premium Deep Navy Blue with Soft Touch LCD back color w/ 2.0M pixel Camer
-- Processor Branding:
-- Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
-- Labels:
-- Windows Vista蒂 Premium

Edited by VeeDubkid, 11 November 2007 - 04:22 PM.

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Yes you can buy 4 GB, I assume you already know that you can only use about 3.2GB under vista. Once you get a 64bit OS the full 4GB will show.
Unless there was 2 hard drives in your laptop already (there isn't), there won't be enough room to do so. Besides, adding another hard drive to your laptop reduces the life of your laptop by a fair amount. You could upgrade your laptop, but as the hard drives get a higher capacity they become harder to find, at the moment, the largest laptop hard drive on the market that I know of is 250GB.
James

[james_8970]

Yes you can buy 4 GB, I assume you already know that you can only use about 3.2GB under vista. Once you get a 64bit OS the full 4GB will show.
Unless there was 2 hard drives in your laptop already (there isn't), there won't be enough room to do so. Besides, adding another hard drive to your laptop reduces the life of your laptop by a fair amount. You could upgrade your laptop, but as the hard drives get a higher capacity they become harder to find, at the moment, the largest laptop hard drive on the market that I know of is 250GB.
James

[VeeDubkid]

Hey James- Thanks for the info. I just checked Dell again and the biggest Hard Drive is 320 but then under that they have an option of
(Dual: 320GB (2x 160) 5400RPM Hard Drive) and (Dual: 640GB (2x 320) 5400RPM Hard Drive) so I thought there was room for 2 or is it just a huge Hard Drive? I have never heard of a dual HD before. I am aware that with 32 bit you can only get the 3gigs out of it, what I am not aware of is why 64 bit is better? Is it just about gaming? like is it the same thing as with older game consoles (super nes against a Nintendo 64) N64 being smoother,faster and more appealing visually> Thanks again,

[james_8970]

While there are 320GB hard drives shipping from the manufactures, I havn't seen any on the market available to purchase as of yet, OEM's probably have them, but I cannot seem to find them for purchase for the general public.
It is correct you can get laptop's with two hard drives, I picked one out for my friend, but unless you choose the dual hard drive configuration from dell, they'd give you a different laptop chassis in order to make the laptop smaller and lighter. Therefore I highly doubt there is anywhere you can add another hard drive, because your chassis/case is different.
64 bit is better, but because of lack of support from many manufactures of peripheral and programs, it makes it more of a headache then anything.
James

Edited by james_8970, 11 November 2007 - 01:50 PM.

[VeeDubkid]

Hey James or anybody who knows,

OK so I got my notebook today and it has come installed with 2 X 512mb making 1 gig. Now my question is can I buy a 2gig stick and place it in dimmA and leave one of the 512 theoretically giving me 2.5 gigs memory? Or am I better off buying 2 1gig sticks and just selling the 2512's? From all the advice I have gotten the most my computer would use is 3 gigs. so wouldn't 2.5 work? Thank you for all your help, Jay

[james_8970]

Your better off buying 2 sticks of 1GB RAM, less possibilities of imcompatibilities between the RAM moduals. You cannot run your RAM is dual channel with 2.5GB. Anything >2 is barley noticeable.
James