Cheap DDR 2700 RAM for a laptop

[MarcLister]

I have an ageing Acer Aspire 2012 laptop with 512Mb of RAM. It is very slow to load stuff up and I'd like to increase the RAM the laptop has to 1Gb minimum if not a bit more to try and compensate for the slow processor.

It currently has 512Mb as I said before, split into 2 x 256Mb sticks. There are two RAM slots so I will have to remove one of the sticks to get up to 1Gb or more RAM.

I've checked the Crucial.com/uk site and they are quoting me £50ish for a 1Gb stick. Does anyone know of any reputable laptop memory sites where I can get DDR 2700 RAM a bit cheaper?

I'm looking to get a 1Gb stick so that I'd have 1280Mb of RAM, which would be 2.5x more than I have now which should speed the laptop up a bit. :)

[Mark]

Doesn't sound far wrong price-wise (there's a glut of DDR2 making it uber cheap, but the same doesn't apply to DDR). Unfortunately I only have PC2100, otherwise I'd be glad to offer it. :(

[Admiral Huddy]

I have two scrap laptops in the workshop.. I'll check what memory modules they have and post back tonight.

[MarcLister]

Doesn't sound far wrong price-wise (there's a glut of DDR2 making it uber cheap, but the same doesn't apply to DDR). Unfortunately I only have PC2100, otherwise I'd be glad to offer it. :(Cheers Mark. Would dropping from 2700 to 2100 be that noticeable?

I have two scrap laptops in the workshop.. I'll check what memory modules they have and post back tonight.Muchos gracias Huddy. :D

[Stan_Lite]

If Huddy doesn't have the right stuff, there's a 1GB stick for £33.49 from 7dayshop (http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_11&products_id=103276). P&P is £3.95 by 1st class Royal Mail or £6.95 for their "jump the queue" service (goods are guaranteed to be dispatched the same day but still sent 1st class).

I bought some stuff from them recently and they were pretty quick - and cheap :)

[MarcLister]

Thanks Bigstan! About £17 cheaper than Crucial. :D

[MarcLister]

Just to emphasise my point I timed how long (using my new Nokia 6300, thanks Feek!) it takes for Opera 9.26, Firefox 2.0.0.12 and IE7 to load up and for my homepage (Google.co.uk) to load to a point of readyness.

Opera took 7 seconds.
Firefox took 20 seconds.
IE took 11 seconds.

I seriously hope that getting some more RAM will speed them up a bit. :D

[killerkebab]

TWENTY SECONDS?

[MarcLister]

Yes.

[killerkebab]

Sorry, I didn't realise how stupid that post was until now :p
What OS are you using to get such slow speeds?

[MarcLister]

Windows XP.

[killerkebab]

Well for what it's worth in my experience, the size of RAM makes a bigger difference than the speed does (I used to run 2700 sticks at 2100 speeds and then changed to 2700 when I upgraded motherboard). Not much changed.

[MarcLister]

Hmm. Just need to find some RAM from somewhere! :D

[Jonny69]

My personal opinion, I'm running an older AMD XP2200 with 256Mb PC2100 RAM and Firefox loads in about 2-3 seconds max. I would say you need a reinstall more than you need more RAM.

I'd be thinking more about uninstalling some stuff you don't need, running CCleaner to clean up the hard disk, then run its reg cleaner a few times, re-boot and defrag with a good 3rd party defragging program. Slim down your choice of antivirus, especialy if you're hiding behind a router and since you're using Firefox which blocks most internet threats.

What AV/AS are you using and what apps do you have running in the background?

[MarcLister]

Could be, could be. I'm using the Acer install XP. Perhaps I need to get the key for this XP and try and make an nLite install with less stuff in it.

I'm already using CCleaner, RegCleaner, Defraggler etc to clean up my PC/registry/defrag the HDD.

I'm using AntiVir which ironically seems more RAM intensive than Avast, which it replaced.

I am behind a router but I use Opera not Firefox. I have disabled my Comodo firewall as I just don't have the RAM for it.

I normally have Thunderbird and MSN (WLM) running but I've just closed Thunderbird to save some RAM. Might try Pidgin to see if that uses less RAM than WLM.

I've had a go at tailoring the XP services so that only the essential run from the off and anything that might need to run later is set to manual.

I am planning to build a spare PC soon. I have a 3200 x64/2 Gb DDR RAM/2 x HDDs/Mobo/Heatsink etc. Just need to get a cheap case/psu combo/dvd-rw drive/keyboard and mouse and I am ready.

My Mum mainly uses this laptop as I'm at Uni. She hasn't complained to me about it but then she just uses Word and Firefox/IE for work so wouldn't push the laptop as I do trying to run Opera/Thunderbird/MSN/Winamp etc. :D

So the PC is my priority for Easter as I can use that and it will be better for me. I still think I will get the RAM for the laptop up to 1Gb or over as it is a joke.

So Jonny any ideas on what else I can do to speed this laptop up?

[Jonny69]

Here's my first suggestion. I don't know AntiVir but uninstall it and see if it makes a difference. When I was fixing PCs for a living I used to routinely take off Norton and the computer would be transformed. Used to replace it with something lightweight like AVG.

Opera is fine as well. Basically a lot of internet threats get in through Internet Explorer but they aren't compatible with the likes of Opera and Firefox.

In a way your antivirus watcher becomes redundant because the firewall in the router blocks worms and your alternative browser stops internet threats. That only leaves about two things as threats: dodgy files you might have downloaded from naughty software or tracking cookies. Since you run Ccleaner regularly you delete the tracking cookies and in my case I don't download dodgy files.

I don't have antivirus any more. I've never had anything get in through Firefox so I just have Spybot installed and immunised. I run Ccleaner about once a week and defrag maybe once every 6 months?

[MarcLister]

Hmm I just put AntiVir on instead of Avast thinking it would be better. I have Spybot/Spywareblaster installed and fully immunised. I accept only the main cookies for sites and block the rest that look dodgy.

Will give AVG a go. :D

[Jonny69]

See what it's like without anything at all first. No point changing from your favourite AV application if it's going to make no difference. If it's really fast without AntiVir then you know AntiVir is the problem. If it makes no difference at all then that's not the core of the problem.

Another trick to try is switch off system restore as it'll delete all the old files and start afresh. View hidden and system files and in the root of the Windows folder you'll see a long list of $KB123456$ folders appear. These are the Windows Update backups and you can delete them if you're not going to uninstall any of them.

You'll be surprised how much junk builds up. You might find you free up a few gb of space and then when you do a cleanup and defrag it'll actually make a difference because the OS isn't fighting its way round all the old crap.

[LeperousDust]

I tried AntiVir, well i say try i installed it on someone elses PC, and tbh i was NOT impressed at all. Seemed pretty bloated to me. I use Avast (premium) and would never think of switching from avast to antivir! Each to their own though...

[MarcLister]

See what it's like without anything at all first. No point changing from your favourite AV application if it's going to make no difference. If it's really fast without AntiVir then you know AntiVir is the problem. If it makes no difference at all then that's not the core of the problem.I will try that later. :D

Another trick to try is switch off system restore as it'll delete all the old files and start afresh. View hidden and system files and in the root of the Windows folder you'll see a long list of $KB123456$ folders appear. These are the Windows Update backups and you can delete them if you're not going to uninstall any of them.As soon as I worked out how to turn System Restore in 2001/2002 I've always had it turned off. Have never used it! :D

You'll be surprised how much junk builds up. You might find you free up a few gb of space and then when you do a cleanup and defrag it'll actually make a difference because the OS isn't fighting its way round all the old crap.Hmm I doubt I've got that much crap. CCleaner reports only a few meg and I've RegCleaner'd the registry to hell and back. :D

I tried AntiVir, well i say try i installed it on someone elses PC, and tbh i was NOT impressed at all. Seemed pretty bloated to me. I use Avast (premium) and would never think of switching from avast to antivir! Each to their own though...Yeah the laptop seems to take longer to boot into XP with AntiVir. Just looking for the most resource friendly av out there. :D

[Stan_Lite]

Yeah the laptop seems to take longer to boot into XP with AntiVir. Just looking for the most resource friendly av out there. :D

I just opened task manager to check what Avast (free edition) is using and it's using about 26KB RAM altogether. Which isn't much when leaky old Firefox is using nearly 79KB.

Edit; Sorry, that should be 26MB :o

[MarcLister]

Task Manager reports the three AntiVir processes are running under 10Mb. Which is rubbish! No way that can be right. Will give AVG a go and if that isn't brilliant go back to Avast. :D

[LeperousDust]

I'd say avg is good but isn't a whole lot better. Grab a "decent" copy of avast ;)

[MarcLister]

Are you saying that a "decent" copy of Avast is better than the free version? :p

[LeperousDust]

Shall i start calling you sherlock? :p Or just spell it out next time? ;D

[Jonny69]

I've used AVG Free and Avast free edition fairly extensively. Not much between them in my opinion but I prefer the user interface in AVG as it's simpler.

[MarcLister]

Shall i start calling you sherlock? :p Or just spell it out next time? ;D:o

I've used AVG Free and Avast free edition fairly extensively. Not much between them in my opinion but I prefer the user interface in AVG as it's simpler.Cheers. Might take a look at that. It seems Avast slows down Firefox. FF was quick to load with AntiVir but slower with Avast. :D