Will Another 1GB of RAM Help?

[Justin]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

http://www.imagebam.com/image/a8870888787396

 

[Nil]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

Probably. The conventional wisdom is that 2GB is a comfortable minimum,
no matter what Microsoft may claim.

RAM is cheap. Go for it.

 

[Justin]

Probably. The conventional wisdom is that 2GB is a comfortable minimum,
no matter what Microsoft may claim.

RAM is cheap. Go for it.

Already ordered.
Actually the RAM in my iMac is the same type this thing takes, so I'm
upgrading the iMac and putting the used RAM stick in the D430.
IN the meantime the D430is getting Ubuntu.
Actually even Lucid 64 is slow as balls...

 

[Paul]

Already ordered.
Actually the RAM in my iMac is the same type this thing takes, so I'm
upgrading the iMac and putting the used RAM stick in the D430.
IN the meantime the D430is getting Ubuntu.
Actually even Lucid 64 is slow as balls...

Before you did that, it would have been useful to get the
Windows Experience Index numbers for all the subsystems
in the machine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Windows_experience_index_in_windows_7.png

It looks like your D430 uses a 4200RPM 1.8" PATA ZIF hard
drive. And finding a good replacement for that, would be
difficult. The best modern replacement SSDs have things
like microSATA connectors on them, and the connector
available on your machine uses an older standard. (In
fact, it looks like a flex cable, is used to convert from
PATA ZIF, to some other connector.)

It's hard to say, how long a brand like this would last. You
really need a lot of reviews, to see if the product is
reliable or not. The second one has slightly better read/write
(but those read/write figures are for sequential access, and
can be deceiving under real world conditions).

http://www.amazon.com/128GB-1-8-inch-40-pin-SaberTooth-solid/dp/B0035OOC5W

http://www.activemp.com/SSD/18-IDE-PATA-ZIF-SSD-ZT-turbo.htm

Wasn't WinXP working OK on that thing ? Why did you switch
in the first place ? A gig of RAM would have been OK for WinXP.
And Ubuntu should be OK with a gig of RAM as well (I run
Ubuntu in VirtualPC with 1GB of RAM assigned to it.)

Any OS that thrashes that hard drive, is going to seem slow.

Paul

 

[philo]

Already ordered.
Actually the RAM in my iMac is the same type this thing takes, so I'm
upgrading the iMac and putting the used RAM stick in the D430.
IN the meantime the D430is getting Ubuntu.
Actually even Lucid 64 is slow as balls...

considering how cheap ram is

I've upgraded all my machines


3 gigs of ram for all running 32 bit OS's

and 4 gigs for those with 64 bit OS's


Now days 2 gigs is pretty much the recommended minimum


it seems like only yesterday when I bought an extra 32megs of ram for my
P-1 (went from 8 megs to 40)

probably paid more than what a one gig stick costs today!

 

[Justin]

Before you did that, it would have been useful to get the
Windows Experience Index numbers for all the subsystems
in the machine.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Windows_experience_index_in_wind
ows_7.png

It looks like your D430 uses a 4200RPM 1.8" PATA ZIF hard
drive. And finding a good replacement for that, would be
difficult. The best modern replacement SSDs have things
like microSATA connectors on them, and the connector
available on your machine uses an older standard. (In
fact, it looks like a flex cable, is used to convert from
PATA ZIF, to some other connector.)

I looked at upgrading the hard drive, but that stupid 1.8" form factor
limits the possibilities.

It's hard to say, how long a brand like this would last. You
really need a lot of reviews, to see if the product is
reliable or not. The second one has slightly better read/write
(but those read/write figures are for sequential access, and
can be deceiving under real world conditions).

http://www.amazon.com/128GB-1-8-inch-40-pin-SaberTooth-solid/dp/B0035OOC5W

http://www.activemp.com/SSD/18-IDE-PATA-ZIF-SSD-ZT-turbo.htm

Wasn't WinXP working OK on that thing ? Why did you switch
in the first place ? A gig of RAM would have been OK for WinXP.
And Ubuntu should be OK with a gig of RAM as well (I run

I bought it off eBay without an OS. My intent was to put Seven on it,
since I have an extra license and number laying around. Once I do that
I'm going to sell the system on eBay.

 

[Chuck]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

http://www.imagebam.com/image/a8870888787396

Yes, 2G is about the minimum for decent operation.
This unit has 533Mhz RAM,and possibly 1.33Ghz core 2 Duo processor.
Actually, if it were available, I'd likely use Win XP Pro instead of
Win7 on this machine. (Assuming drivers, etc are available)

 

[Helroy]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

http://www.imagebam.com/image/a8870888787396

I would run Windows7 upgrade advisor before installing.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

 

[LouB]

I would run Windows7 upgrade advisor before installing.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

Already has win 7 so more ram is the way to go.
3 rather than 2 would be even better.

 

[Ken Blake]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

Almost certainly it should make a big difference. Except for those who
do little more with their computer than play solitaire, 2GB is the
minimum amount of RAM you should have.

 

[Ken Blake]

Already has win 7 so more ram is the way to go.
3 rather than 2 would be even better.

How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and
that depends on what apps you run.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory
will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance.
If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do
little or nothing for you.

So depending on what he runs, 3GB may or may not be better for him
than 2GB.

 

[Leythos]

Hi folks, I have a Dell D430 with 1GB or RAM.
When I installed WIndows 7 - this thing is redefining slow.
Would another gig of ram help?

I'm running Windows 7 Professional on a machine with 4GB ram, the x64
version.

The computer, with MS Office 2007 and Gravity News Reader open, along
with typical things (Antivirus, YIM) sits at about 1.32GB, opening Word
2007 with a simple text type document pushes it to 1.38GB.

I would suggest that you increase your system ram to at LEAST 2GB and
possibly 3GB if you can afford it.

With 1GB ram you are constantly swapping out memory to make room for
applications that you are using.

 

[Thip]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:24:38 -0400, Justin

Almost certainly it should make a big difference. Except for those who
do little more with their computer than play solitaire, 2GB is the
minimum amount of RAM you should have.

ReadyBoost works quite well in Win7 if the user is stuck with just 2 GB.

 

[Ken Blake]

ReadyBoost works quite well in Win7 if the user is stuck with just 2 GB.

Not my experience at all. I've found readyboost to be useless, except
for those well under 2gB.

 

[Justin]

Already has win 7 so more ram is the way to go.
3 rather than 2 would be even better.

The Dell D430 can only support 2GB of ram.

 

[Paul]

The Dell D430 can only support 2GB of ram.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. It has 1GB soldered
in and one SODIMM slot. The 945GM datasheet seems to be indicating
that SODIMM could be a 2GB module. The total max might be 1+2=3GB.
(If the original memory wasn't soldered in, it could have been upgraded
as well.) For performance reasons, a better combo would be 1+1 (dual channel
symmetric mode). It all depends on whether the OS caching habits
with 3GB total, exceed the benefits of running 1+1 dual channel symmetric
and getting slightly more memory bandwidth.

http://www.memoryx.net/dellbuo.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Latitude-D430-Subnotebook.7900.0.html

"The reviewed notebook was equipped with one Gigabyte soldered DDR2 RAM.
Nevertheless, the RAM capacity can still be easily enhanced to up to 3 GB,
because there is a free memory slot hidden beneath a maintenance opening.
Considering the current RAM costs, this is surely a good idea. But,
Windows XP ran also smoothly with only one GB RAM."

See Table 22 and Figure 15, starting on PDF page 339. This is the
info for the 945GM, which should be the chipset of that computer.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/309219.pdf

You can verify the chipset present, with something like CPUZ. Some
chipsets are hard to tell apart, so the utilities identify the
chipset as a member of a "family", rather than stating it is one
exact chipset. Using the no-install version of this utility,
means you can just run the executable without needing to
mess around.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Paul

 

[Seth]

I wouldn't be too sure about that. It has 1GB soldered
in and one SODIMM slot. The 945GM datasheet seems to be indicating
that SODIMM could be a 2GB module. The total max might be 1+2=3GB.
(If the original memory wasn't soldered in, it could have been upgraded
as well.) For performance reasons, a better combo would be 1+1 (dual
channel
symmetric mode). It all depends on whether the OS caching habits
with 3GB total, exceed the benefits of running 1+1 dual channel symmetric
and getting slightly more memory bandwidth.

http://www.memoryx.net/dellbuo.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Latitude-D430-Subnotebook.7900.0.html

"The reviewed notebook was equipped with one Gigabyte soldered DDR2
RAM.
Nevertheless, the RAM capacity can still be easily enhanced to up to 3
GB,
because there is a free memory slot hidden beneath a maintenance
opening.
Considering the current RAM costs, this is surely a good idea. But,
Windows XP ran also smoothly with only one GB RAM."

See Table 22 and Figure 15, starting on PDF page 339. This is the
info for the 945GM, which should be the chipset of that computer.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/309219.pdf

You can verify the chipset present, with something like CPUZ. Some
chipsets are hard to tell apart, so the utilities identify the
chipset as a member of a "family", rather than stating it is one
exact chipset. Using the no-install version of this utility,
means you can just run the executable without needing to
mess around.

According to both Dell and www.crucial.com it only supports 2G max. the 1G
on-board and 1 additional. While the Intel chipset may support a 2G
expansion, the Dell design doesn't.

 

[Paul]

According to both Dell and www.crucial.com it only supports 2G max. the
1G on-board and 1 additional. While the Intel chipset may support a 2G
expansion, the Dell design doesn't.

OK, I found another document on the Dell site, and this one says the D430
has a 945GMS and not a 945GM. (And the CPUZ utility is typically of no
help in situations like this, as it can't seem to tell the difference
between them, using electronic identification.)

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/latit/en/spec_latit_d430_en.pdf

The 945GMS appears to be single channel. PDF page 28 has the details.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/309219.pdf

* Supports single-channel DDR2 SDRAM only
* Maximum Memory supported 2 GB
* Memory Channel Topologies supported:
- Single-channel with 1 SO-DIMM only (up to 1 GB)
- Single-channel with 1 SO-DIMM (up to 1 GB) and Memory Down (up to 1 GB)
* Support for DDR2 at 400 MHz and 533 MHz

That is more consistent with the info Dell gives.

Someone tried 1+2 here on the D430 and the machine failed to POST.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-latitude-vostro-precision/267864-dell-d430-3gb-ram-2.html

The above information also means, that Justin will not see a bandwidth
increase, when the SODIMM is installed. He'll see more memory, but the
single channel bus won't provide any more megabytes/sec in a memory
benchmark. The 945GM might have done that, if it was present.

It also makes me wonder, how many product returns they got on this
site, for selling a 2GB SODIMM for the D430.

http://www.memoryx.net/dellbuo.html

*******

Have I found hardware, where more memory does work ? Yes. My previous
motherboard had a chipset, where the chipset manufacturer claimed
it would only support 2x1GB. And after reading some things on a German
web site, I tried 1+2 and 2+2GB combinations, and they both worked.
So you can find products, where the information provided is incorrect.
Years ago, the 440BX boards were like that as well - initially supporting
128MB and eventually taking low density 256MB modules. Every once in
a while, people discover these things and take advantage of them.

Paul

 

[Paul]

It gets even weirder here. Compare D420 to D430. Both use the same
chipset, and the capabilities on the RAM front are different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude

D420 512MB soldered + 2GB SODIMM (945GMS single channel)
D430 1GB soldered + 1GB SODIMM (945GMS single channel)

Why there is a difference, doesn't make a lot of sense. At
least, if the chipsets really are the same, as stated there.

Paul

 

[Justin]

It gets even weirder here. Compare D420 to D430. Both use the same
chipset, and the capabilities on the RAM front are different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude

D420 512MB soldered + 2GB SODIMM (945GMS single channel)
D430 1GB soldered + 1GB SODIMM (945GMS single channel)

Why there is a difference, doesn't make a lot of sense. At
least, if the chipsets really are the same, as stated there.

Paul

Interesting... if only I had a 2GB SODIMM laying around I could test
and see if it worked.
The D430 was marketed as a budget portable - "almost netbook" type deal.

I originally bought it to use in places where I didn't want to take my
Macbook Pro.
Unfortunately I think this machine is a bit too underpowered.

I have licenses for Windows XP both 32 and 64 - but the D430 didn't come
with an optical drive. So I have to install an OS via the USB drive. I
followed some instructions for making a Windows 7 boot installer USB
drive and it worked perfectly. Same with Ubuntu.
Windows XP on the other hand is supposedly harder - especially now that
I don't have access to a Windows machine at all.