I have a 4 year old Toshiba Satellite A135 that runs Vista. It's a little beat up, but otherwise works fine. The processor is Intel Core 2 Duo 1.73 GHz, 110GB HD, and I upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 2 right away when I bought it from Bestbuy in 2007. The battery life sucks and it's heavy, but these things don't bother me anymore. I graduated college in 2008 and since have used it 95% of the time as a desktop, especially since getting my iPhone.
So here's the question: Would upgrading the RAM to 4GBs make a significant difference in my overall computer's reaction time, speed, and ability to multitask? I want to be able to edit HD video and speed up my system on the cheap. I am not a film major and don't plan on editing a lot of home videos, but the only way I can edit my 720p/60fps video from my Kodak Playsport ZX3 is to simply string the videos together. Unless I am mistaken it seems that I can get a 2x2GB RAM package for about $50.
In a year my plan is to buy an iMac, but $1200 is still a lot of money considering I wouldn't be using it more everyday than I currently do. The iMac may be overkill for my minor needs, but it's cheaper than going the laptop route and if I really need portability I will just use my laptop or get a chromebook eventually. I favor the iMac because the Mac Mini still needs peripherals like a screen (or two) and now lacks a disk drive. I really thought the revamped one would come with a blu ray drive. I have to imagine the screen on the iMac is worth the money, plus the nice keyboard, trackpad and it's quad core. I also don't have an extra monitor just lying around...
My wife is likely going to buy a Macbook Air in the next month or so, but I'll stick to my main question about the upgrade.
On a 4 year old laptop, will going from 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM be worth the $50, or should I just save the money for a new system?
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Worth upgrading RAM on 4 year old laptop?
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Doubling the RAM would absolutely improve performance in a way you would notice, RAM is one of the best investments you can make in a PC. I'd say that it'd probably be worth it to spend the fifty bucks now, even if you do plan to eventually get another machine. And if you shop around you can probably spend a little bit less than $50, too.
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nitehawk's pick
I looked up your computer model to see what's the maximum amount of RAM you can upgrade to and it turns out it only supports 2GBs, at least according to Crucial's RAM advisory tool. See www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Satelli...
I have an old Dell laptop that it similarly specced to your laptop (2GB RAM, 1.7 C2D cpu, integrated graphics) and a clean install of Windows 7 runs pretty well. I've noticed with other computers that I've used that moving from Vista to 7 really improves performance. The only issue here is that Windows 7 will cost you more than $50 and you're planning on going Mac anyways, so it might not be worth it in that respect.
Another (free) route that you can go is install Linux on your laptop - Ubuntu is my favorite ( ubuntu.com ). It'll have the same performance boost you would see with Windows 7 and it even has some decent video editor - www.openshotvideo.com/ . Drawbacks here is that you'll need to back up all your data (hopefully you're doing this already) and you'll have to get accustomed to the different OS.
Last recommendation, try wiping your computer with a new install of Vista. If you have been running the same instance of Vista since you bought the computer, doing this will probably improve the performance. Again, you'll need to back up and reinstall your software.
I have an old Dell laptop that it similarly specced to your laptop (2GB RAM, 1.7 C2D cpu, integrated graphics) and a clean install of Windows 7 runs pretty well. I've noticed with other computers that I've used that moving from Vista to 7 really improves performance. The only issue here is that Windows 7 will cost you more than $50 and you're planning on going Mac anyways, so it might not be worth it in that respect.
Another (free) route that you can go is install Linux on your laptop - Ubuntu is my favorite ( ubuntu.com ). It'll have the same performance boost you would see with Windows 7 and it even has some decent video editor - www.openshotvideo.com/ . Drawbacks here is that you'll need to back up all your data (hopefully you're doing this already) and you'll have to get accustomed to the different OS.
Last recommendation, try wiping your computer with a new install of Vista. If you have been running the same instance of Vista since you bought the computer, doing this will probably improve the performance. Again, you'll need to back up and reinstall your software.
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It will definitely help some but with videos I believe the bottle neck will come more with the processor than memory.
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Mmmm, it largely depends on how many programs you usually have open at once. Monitor your typical usage for a week or two by looking at the task manager performance tab (look in the Physical Memory box at the 'Available' line and see if you are running low or not. If you aren't, I wouldn't spend the money. It won't speed up anything for you, it will just allow you to either open more things at once or more memory intensive applications.
With that said, 2GB is pretty much the minimum with Vista or Windows 7, and if you are going to start video editing I wouldn't be surprised if you start maxing out that 2GB. So it may be worth it for your future video editing.
With that said, 2GB is pretty much the minimum with Vista or Windows 7, and if you are going to start video editing I wouldn't be surprised if you start maxing out that 2GB. So it may be worth it for your future video editing.
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I also have a Satellite Toshiba about 5 years old I think (A215) and also bought it from Best Buy at a special Sunday Night Closing Rewards Members Event for like $399 with a Microsoft Zune thrown in to sweeten the deal (RIP Zune). Anyway, I like to film in HD with the GoPro when me and my brother go snowboarding and editing these videos takes FOREVER!!!
SPECS:
Model: A215-S4757
Operating System: Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
CPU: AMD Turion64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz 512KB x2 L2 Cache 1600MHz FSB
Chipset: RS690
Screen: 15.4” Glossy WXGA 1280x800
Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC5300 2 Slots, 0 Open 4GB Max
Hard Drive: 250 GB Fujitsu 4200RPM (MHX2250BT)
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-K17LF
I'm also thinking about upgrading from 2gb to 4gb. Do you think I should do it?
Oh and really, if you want to get technical a 32-bit operating system (The A215 features this) will not recognize but about 3.5 gb of your ram. Also, the reason 4GB is the max is also because of the 32-bit OS.
SPECS:
Model: A215-S4757
Operating System: Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
CPU: AMD Turion64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz 512KB x2 L2 Cache 1600MHz FSB
Chipset: RS690
Screen: 15.4” Glossy WXGA 1280x800
Memory: 2GB DDR2 PC5300 2 Slots, 0 Open 4GB Max
Hard Drive: 250 GB Fujitsu 4200RPM (MHX2250BT)
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-K17LF
I'm also thinking about upgrading from 2gb to 4gb. Do you think I should do it?
Oh and really, if you want to get technical a 32-bit operating system (The A215 features this) will not recognize but about 3.5 gb of your ram. Also, the reason 4GB is the max is also because of the 32-bit OS.
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