Upgrading ram, processor and HDD on Dell Inspiron 1545

BobbyT28

Hi,

I am upgrading my old laptop. I currently have 3GB of ram on board (2Gb + 1GB). I am looking to upgrade this to 8GB.

The cheapest ram I can find is on memoryc.com
https://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr2sodimm/4gbpatriotpc26400cl6laptopmodule.html

Does anyone know where I could get 1 x 4GB or 2 x 4GB from a bit cheaper?

Don't want to spend a big amount on this upgrade. I've already upgraded the processor and will upgrade to ssd after I get the ram.

If anyone can suggest a cheaper ram module that would be great.

Thanks,
b
BobbyT28

ED E

DDR2, you sure the board will support 8GB?

BobbyT28

Hi,

Yes it will support it. To be honest I would be happy to just add 4GB with the 2GB module to bring it up to 6GB.

Any ideas where I could get 4GB module for less that €50 ! Just don't want to spend mad money on this ram

Thanks
BobbyT28

skallywag

As mentioned above make sure to check that an upgrade to 8GB is possible with your system.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious there is no point whatsoever in upping to 8GB in RAM unless you are running a 64 bit version of windows.

BTW, unless you are frequently running many memory hungry applications in parallel, in terms of performance difference the SSD upgrade is going to make considerably more of a difference than the RAM upgrade.

As for where to buy for the cheapest price, it's got to be eBay.

BobbyT28

skallywag wrote: »

As mentioned above make sure to check that an upgrade to 8GB is possible with your system.

At the risk of pointing out the obvious there is no point whatsoever in upping to 8GB in RAM unless you are running a 64 bit version of windows.

BTW, unless you are frequently running many memory hungry applications in parallel, in terms of performance difference the SSD upgrade is going to make considerably more of a difference than the RAM upgrade.

Putting Linux distro on it. I would imagine 4GB would probably do. So all I need would be 2GB module to add to my 2Gb I already have. They are cheap to come by.

Any suggestions on a SSD? Was looking at this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=21GYLYZEIRJZD&coliid=I3SQ1520US3EYX&psc=1

Thanks,

BobbyT28

skallywag

I've a Samsung myself it's not given me any hassle so far:

http://www.amazon.de/Samsung-MZ-7TE250BW-interne-metallic-silber/dp/B00E3W1726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427980320&sr=8-1&keywords=ssd+samsung+256

The drive that you are pointing too also looks good, and is good value for money.

Lu Tze

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Putting Linux distro on it. I would imagine 4GB would probably do. So all I need would be 2GB module to add to my 2Gb I already have. They are cheap to come by.

Any suggestions on a SSD? Was looking at this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=21GYLYZEIRJZD&coliid=I3SQ1520US3EYX&psc=1

Thanks,

BobbyT28

I have 2 kingstons, for about three years. No trouble. One of them is the v300, probably at a good price as they must have replacements out and clearing stock.

That said though I have two crucials, and 1 Sammy which haven't given any problems either!

BobbyT28

Thanks for all the replies guy's.

Do you think 4GB will suffice for Kubuntu say?

Regards,
BobbyT28

skallywag

I would say that 4GB will nearly always be more than enough RAM unless you intend doing something very memory intensive, such as perhaps photo editing, etc.

By the way I would definitely make the spend on the SSD before the RAM.

BobbyT28

Yeah I will see the best performance jump with SSD before RAM.

Thanks for all the comments.

Time to start shopping. Does anyone recommend a site to get this stuff from apart from the obvious, Amazon, ebay, dabs etc

Moon54

The best bang for your buck would be to pick up an SSD which makes such a huge difference when doing stuff, especially to a laptop.
That Kingston 120GB SSD for €61 would be fine, it's price is great & free delivery too, with good reviews on Amazon.

If space becomes an issue later on you can replace the DVD drive with a HDD caddy for €5 like this one to fit a cheap mechanical drive for extra storage.

If you want to get to 4gb Ram as well, you could just get a 2gb stick off ebay for €20 with free delivery from DrMemory
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/2GB-1x2GB-DDR2-800-PC2-6400-Laptop-SODIMM-Memory-RAM-200-pin-/221622664567?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3399bd7d77

PropJoe10

DDR2 is quite expensive. To be honest, if you're putting a Linux distro on it, 3GB is probably plenty unless you're doing intensive tasks on it. I run the MATE desktop environment on a machine quite similar to your one, and it uses about 250MB RAM while idle. You'd get a lot of mileage out of 3GB RAM.

BobbyT28

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Much appreciated.

I think I will go for the Kingston SSD and maybe 2GB of ram to bring it up to 4GB. Although in saying that, I was using Kubuntu in VMWare and I allocated it 2GB of Ram and it ran fine for browsing email etc. So I would imagine 3GB would be fine.

The whole upgrade along with the processor I got will be a total of €92. Not bad if you ask me.

thanks again. I will let you know how I get on.

BobbyT28