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General discussion

Great Prosessor with.. crappy memory?

Mar 12, 2005 1:58AM PST

Would it be effective to have a Pentium M 755 prosessor with a 512 2dimms Memory? Or would that just be.. stupid? I would like more memory, but it seems an upgrade to a gig would make it like 500 more dollers! and thats so expensive! would my computer be good with the 755 and 512? or will it be just as good stickin to the 725 processor and 512 mem?
Thanx alot!
-Tam

Discussion is locked

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Payback is great from 128 to 256 to 512, but...
Mar 12, 2005 2:14AM PST

In today's OSes and most applications, you get very small gains from 512M to 1G.

I won't write the full details, but a test we did with DVD rendering gained 5 minutes on a 6 hour run when we increased RAM from 512M to 1G. That's not worth it.

Bob

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How about the processor then?
Mar 12, 2005 2:23AM PST

Thanx for the reply! how about the processor? would it be smart to get the highest processor?
-Tam

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This is one place I give the nod to getting the most CPU...
Mar 12, 2005 3:05AM PST

Get the most CPU you can. On laptops, I've yet to witness a second person to change it even when it was possible. It can extend the number of years you'll hang onto the unit.

Plus some items really give you a small payback in resale. For example, a 2.0 GHz CPU will fetch more than the 1.9 GHz models. You get the idea. No one will give you a dime for a CPU with 2X the cache even though we all know it's a good thing...

Lots of little odd things like this make for interesting acquisition decisions.

Bob

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CPU and other performance impacts
Mar 13, 2005 12:33AM PST

Great advice and just exactly what I was searching answers for. It's been a rather daunting task to decide which combination of CPU, memory, HDD, graphics controller, etc and also to try and avoid purchasing something that is overkill that would result in little to no noticable benefits gained. I am about to purchase another laptop and could not decide on which CPU to select since the cost significantly increases with each higher processor. You helped me make the decision to go with the 770. Would you suggest configuring with 512MBx1 so to allow for later expansion if needed? Would you also offer any insight about the necessity of a graphics controller with dedicated memory and whether it may or may not impact performance if you are not a gamer? And would the selection of a WSXGA with the "Brite" display feature benefit from the graphics controller with dedicated memory?

Thanks Bob

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Yes. the 512MB x 1 is ...
Mar 13, 2005 12:57AM PST

The safe bet.

"Would you also offer any insight about the necessity of a graphics controller with dedicated memory and whether it may or may not impact performance if you are not a gamer? And would the selection of a WSXGA with the "Brite" display feature benefit from the graphics controller with dedicated memory?"

No gamer has ever been happy with shared memory video controllers. Non gamers can edit graphics, video, play dvd and more without noticing any deletirous speed effects, but dedicated video memory does give the CPU a little boost since RAM is not shared access.

And I can't see that "selection of a WSXGA with the "Brite" display feature (would) benefit from the graphics controller with dedicated memory".

Bob