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Thursday, February 8, 2007

Why Upgrading Your RAM Yourself is Smarter and Cheaper

Upgrading your RAM on the Dell 1501 is so important. It runs way too slow without it. For the last two months I've been rocking 512MB and my laptop has been completely functional but not fun . This goes for any machine, Windows, Linux, Mac. RAM is the most important part of a computer's speed that you can easily and safely change. Everything loads faster, you can have more desktops and windows open without slowdown, and since your graphic card memory is linked to your system memory, upgrading your RAM will have a direct effect on gaming speeds.

Dell offers a RAM upgrade when you order you 1501 but charges $65 bucks for another 512mb stick, $120 for 1GB Stick (so you get the same amount of memory as the $65 upgrade but get charged another $55 for it to be all on the same stick) or $250 for 2GB. These prices are ridiculous, this is how one of the ways Dell makes a huge profit on a public that may not know better. The best option is to buy your 1501 and upgrade later.

I just bought a 1GB stick from newegg.com this morning for $80 shipped. Saved $40 bucks from what Dell charges and I still have my original 512mb stick. This brings my total memory up to 1.5GB for only $80 dollars. Not too shabby. Remember you can buy RAM online cheap and most brands are perfectly fine for your everyday use. You're looking for Notebook DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, also known as PC2 4200. Happy hunting!

UPS will be delivering Monday so when it comes in I'm will be taking a bunch of pictures and writing a guide on how to upgrade your RAM.
edited by pHreaksYcle

19 comments:

Unknown said...

To be more slightly more precise...the RAM modules used are 200 pin SO-DIMM (or SODIMM)

Otherwise I couldn't agree more, I got mine stock with 1GB. Couldn't imagine the pain you endured using only 512mb!

redDEAD said...

ian and caroline are right it is 200 pin RAM. Good news is that newegg dropped their price a couple of hours after I ordered and the RAM I linked too is under $77 shipped.

weijie said...

Will a nice ram upgrade make the graphics card run like a dedicated one?

What's the maximum amount of ram the 1501 supports? Thanks!

redDEAD said...

Even if you max out your RAM for your integrated graphic card it will not run as well as a dedicated card with the same amount of RAM. The ATI X1150 isn't a slouch though.

2GB is the max.

Unknown said...

Well, I ordered mine with 1 gig or RAM so I can later expand it to 2 gig or more when the time comes. And, the max is 2 gig; I thought it was 4. Also, though the ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 is integrated, doesn't it have 256 MB (or 128 MB, I've seen conflicting reports) of dedicated ememory or some combination of dedicated and shared memory, or is it all shared memory? Finally, I highly doubt this is possible, but is it possible to install a dedicated graphics card to override integrated graphics (I know this can be done in desktops, but Dell laptops)?

redDEAD said...

You cannot change the video cards in the Dell 1501. It is an integrated video card, meaning it shares your system RAM. The integrated card can use up to 256mb of your shared system RAM.

My next article is about this same subject look for it soon.

Amaury said...

Reddead: Which of the two slots would I have to use to put the new 1 gig module? I have both being used, by Kingston 512 modules (so, I want to throw one out, and put a 1 gig one IN). which of the two should I put the 1 gig module into? Or does it matter?

redDEAD said...

I'd put it into the 1st slot, I don't know if it makes a difference. I've just always put largest stick in the 1st slot.

Does anyone know if it makes a difference?

Administrator said...

I bought my 1501 with 2gig RAM, and i still think it's too slooooww!!

Can i upgrade to more? or is there just place for 2gig?

Thanks!

redDEAD said...

2 gigs is about as high as it goes

Torey said...

why is 2 GB total the max. What if you put two 2 GB in the slots for a total of 4 GB? Will the computer not run or over heat or something?

redDEAD said...

torey,

2 gigs is the max, because 2 gigs is the max. The 1501 won't work with more than that.

Anonymous said...

The 1501 will accept 4 gigs of ram ( and yes this is verified I have 6 of them all with 4 gigs of ram and all humming along very nicely)
the problem is finding an operating system to use it.
You will surely need a 64 bit OS.

redDEAD said...

danndoor must have a newer model 1501 because mine only excepts 2GB as a max. I also have one of the first 1501 to roll off the production lines. The day the 1501 came out I ordered it. It could be the motherboard received an upgrade.

Jason said...

danndoor, what model RAM have you got in your 1501? I'm looking at Kingston M25664E40 as a single 2GB module at the moment. Just wanna verify it's the right thing before I look at buying anything.

Unknown said...

I have just spoken with Customer service straight from the Dell website, he will also concur that 2gb is the max for a Inspiron 1501. Anyone tells you anything differently is lying, whether you have XP or Vista. The answer is still the same.

tadkins said...

Sure Dell would tell you that you could only put 2GB max in your computer because why would you need to buy a new computer. I put as much as I wanted to in mine and it runs great.

Unknown said...

I've got 4 GB of ram on my 1501

it's running great with windows 7 x64

anthony said...

my dell inspiron 1501 after upgrade the bios to the latest 2.6.3, at linux terminal sudo dmidecode, you can check from there, it shown max memory support 4GB.

yes, u need 32bit with PAE or 64bit linux to read 4GB.