New Laptop or More Memory

Hello,

I have an IBM ThinkPad R30 2656-60U Laptop - Intel Pentium IIIE 1000 MHz purchased in 2002 with 256 mb and 30gb hard drive. This laptop is in addition to a two year old desktop that I have which I don't use very often since I retired and now I use my laptop 75% of the time.

I'm trying to figure out if I should upgrade the memory in it or buy a new one. I'm constantly running low on memory and I've ran most of the tests and read a lot of info on memory here and have come to the conclusion that I do need more. I have found an online site that I can purchase (2) 512 mb of memory for $187.49. This price includes sales tax and free shipping and it is less money than most sites I've researched including the ones suggested on MG. The link to the memory I need is: http://www.kahlon.com/itemdetailpg.asp?itemid=76042 . Does anyone know about this seller and/or if the memory they sell is good/dependable? I've read here to stay away from Kingston and Corsair. Any other recommendations of memory type?

My laptop has a total of 30gb on the hard drive. There is 11.1 gb in Drive C and I have 5.39 gb free, but I need to really clean it up and could probably clear a lot of gbs. Drive D has 11.1 gb and 6.80 gb free. The laptop did not come with a Windows XP Home CD and it and the recovery program is on this drive. Could I safely use a partition program and move some of the free mg over to the C drive? Any recommendations on a specific inexpensive program? How important is it to keep this drive and the recovery function? I have SP1 and plan on installing SP2 (from CD) so will I actually need the recovery for XP? Could I possibly copy it to my desktop so I'd have access to the drivers, etc. for my devices if I needed them?

I only use my laptop to store/edit pictures, email, web and forums so I don't think space is a real big issue, I use my desktop for work sometimes and personal finances. Difference between upgrading and purchasing new will be over $500. and I can't decide if my use warrants the difference. Has anyone had experience on the time reliability of this particular laptop?

Sorry this is so long and hope I'm not confusing everyone, just can't seem to make a decision on this by myself without some help. Thanks in advance.

 

p.s. Could I mix memory, use one of the 128s I have, take one out and then add a 512? Thanks.

 

You need to see if that laptop will even support 1 gig of memory, most of the older ones wont. I wouldnt mix the memory. ed

 

Please don't confuse RAM and available diskspace as memory, although the computer will use available hard drive space as temperary memory if the physical RAM is taxed or overloaded ( pagefile ).

Yes, you can use a program such as Partition Magic to resize the D: partition and allocate the freed space to the C: drive. As for the need of the recovery partition, it depends on your circumstances. If you have an XP Home OEM disk or have access to one, then I would say no, as you already have an XP Home license ( sticker on the notebook ) and any XP Home OEM disk should install and accept your license number, and all drivers that XP doesn't install should be available for download from IBM's site.

As for the memory upgrade, follow tunered's advice and check and see how much memory that your laptop supports before buying any! Hope this helps!

 

You need to see if that laptop will even support 1 gig of memory
Yes, my laptop will support up to 1gb memory (two 512s), that is the max.

Please don't confuse RAM and available diskspace as memory
No, I wasn't, I was only trying to factor in diskspace as part of my decision too.

Were either able to check out that website on the reliability of the memory from that company?

Thank you for your responses.