RAM advice for my notebook?

Hey, I was wondering about some advice. My parents are getting me a laptop for Christmas, a Compaq Presario CQ62-209WM. The only reason I know this is they don't care about the big SUPRISE factor on Christmas. Anyways, I know its not going to be great, but I was wondering if anyone else has one. My parents got it from walmart, so that might help you. Okay, so now to get to the main thing. I was going to buy some ram, and I want to know how much money to put aside. Here is some specs...

Drive Form Factor: 2.5"
Drive Interface: SATA
Maximum Memory: 8192MB
Slots: 2 (2 banks of 1)
Standard Memory: 3072MB removable
USB Support: 2.x Compliant

So I was just going to get a 4GB, 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-8500 Ram card, Well, its more of a module. So is this a good idea? By the way, glad to be on the forum, though I'm a bit young

 

Hi,
Depending on what OS you will be running, will determine how much RAM is worthwhile installing, as 32bit systems will only recognise around 3.5GB.
So to help you better we would need to know what OS is going to be on the machine.The more RAM the better, I always advise to MAX out with it as it helps your machine run like how it should and make its life span longer.

 

My bad I thought I included that! Windows 7 of course lol! Thats 64 bit computer when running 7, isn't it?

 

There are two versions 32 and 64. I would advise to run the crucial scan from their website...

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/?click=true

when you get your new machine run the scan and it will tell you what RAM is installed and what you can up-grade to, giving exact details of type ddr ddr2 ddr3 etc,if it needs to be matching pairs and the like.
I hope this helps.
iain.t :major

 

Okay thanks, I guess I can't update you until Christmas! I really hope is a 64 bit, 32 bits are way to slow for adobe flash cs5, a personal favorite of mine! Thanks again.

 

Not necessarily as W7 comes in both flavours. I see that "Standard Memory: 3072MB removable" has been stated. Keep your money for pizza or something as you don't need more RAM IMO. What do you want to run?

 

No Problem. Happy Christmas!!!

iain.t :major

 

I like to run some 3d Design programs, Adobe Flash cs5 Professional, etc. I was a little concerned because a few reviews warned of a lot of bloatware on the computer. I'm not going to buy until I get a nice look at speed of the computer.

 

Most pre-built machines have tons of 'bloatware' pre-installed which will slow up your boot time and your machine. Just uninstall them, there's a thread around here somewhere describing the procedure for that. Anyways, uninstall anything that is a trial.

I'm not into 3D Design stuff but I do know these things take a lot of hardware to run properly. As to a notebook for this, I would personally go blind looking at a 15" screen.:eek

Is that your budget and a need for a notebook?

 

It looks like it will be running Win7 Premium 64bit. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...foCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=4217304

It doesn't look like they have gone overboard on the trial software. Some of the Roxio and Cyberlink extras are probably not that useful. The ISP partners is probably just a sales pitch. MS Office is a trial but you probably want to consider buying it or getting the very good, free alternative Open Office since you probably need word processing capabilities. It looks like it should be fairly easy to decide which items you want to keep and which you don't find useful.

That looks like you found the correct RAM module. If it is indeed 64bit Win7 and you want more RAM then you better start putting away about $70 according to Crucial.com (their prices are about average unless you find a great deal on a good brand at a local store--which is getting rare and rarer as more people buy online and less stores stock RAM).

 

Yah i think its cool, I have the ram ready to order but I won't get any until I see the computer. BTW, its got lightscribe, thats pretty cool