Memory upgrade from 4GB to 8GB. How to proceed...?

Question

I am having a Dell Inspiron 1464 with 4GB RAM. Bought this directly from Dell, Banglore. Using this since last 3.5 years and seems pretty happy with it.  I want to upgrade to 8GB RAM. Currently i have an 8GB SD card being used as the ReadyBoost. But over a long period, i think this will not make a huge difference (from my experience). But when i open (the display panel) the laptop after hibernate/sleep it is extremely slow and gets to the point of restarting (mostly hard reset) again. Other wise performance will remain sluggish for a long time; like for 30 -40 mins. Due to this problem i am thinking about upgrading the RAM to 8GB.  I would like to know : Which is the most trusted brand in quality/performance for RAM from where should i buy a OEM product.  What i could possibly do with the old modules? Also, any approx. market price? Thanks in advance.Jay.

ejn63 · Answer

You'll have to look around locally to find a price; the system user PC3-12800 DDR3L RAM. In the US, an 8G kit goes for about $90.

You will not see a major boost by adding RAM - while you will be able to keep more things open and reduce some disc swapping, the performance boost you get will be small overall.

You'd be far better off replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive if it's performance you're after.

jay.reevs · Answer

Thanks Ejn63 for the quick reply. I have Windows 7 pre-installed. I need to figure out a way to get recovery disc out of that.

ejn63 · Answer

Any standard 7 mm 2.5' SSD will work - the big three are Samsung, Crucial and Intel - can't go wrong with any of their SSDs. You'll need to make a Windows recovery disc if you haven't already (it'll be better to start out with a clean install than carry over the existing installation by cloning, particularly if it's been in use for a while and exhibiting signs of slowdowns).

jay.reevs · Answer

....You'd be far better off replacing the hard drive with a solid state drive if it's performance you're after.

Thanks EJN63 for the reply.
It seems like going for SSD makes much sense as many people who switched to SSD experienced huge performance difference and feels they made the right choice.

Plus, my old HDD is showing signs of slowing down. So i think this is the right time for changing it.
Can anyone share some tips on how to go about it. What are the top 1/2/3 points I need to keep in mind while shopping for a new SSD.
I am comfortable with laptop hardware and do most of the servicing work myself.

Thanks in advance.

Jay.

ejn63 · Answer

There is a utility on the hard drive that will let you make recovery media - likely Dell Datasafe if the system came with Windows 7.

jay.reevs · Answer

I decided to go with 256GB SSD upgrade. But then stumbled upon this problem: the inspiron 1464 mother board doesn't support TRIM and AHCI. I came to know that if the mother board doesn't support faster data rates, even after the upgrade the performance will not be much better.

So i am on the back foot now.

Am I correct about this info?

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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