Need help with a memory upgrade, please.

[mitsuman47]

The Fiancee has a 3ish year old Gateway M290 laptop. Can't really find much info on it. Even on Gateway's website. It only has 1 gig (2x 512) of RAM, so I'd like to upgrade it to 2 gigs. I don't really know what all of the spec numbers of the memory sticks stand for. So, I did a google search on the numers that were on the sticker attached to the memory and this is what came up:

http://www.pacificgeek.com/productdetail.asp?ID=641799

I assume that is what is in there. So, will this work as a replacement?

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-2x1GB-200-...1071&sr=8-1

I'll try to get any info you need, but I don't have the laptop with me. Thanks for the help!

 

[bepperb]

Try crucial.com

 

[ZZman]

Go to crucial.com and use their crucial memory system scanner using that computer. It will scan that lap top and tell you everything you need to know.

**I didn't see a M290 listed on Crucial.

 

[sangyup81]

cpuid.com

download cpu-z

it tells you all kinds of system specs like what kind of memory you have installed and what speed it ACTUALLY runs at

 

[WishIhadatruck]

I've used the crucial.com website as well and it works pretty well. It scans your system liek ZZman said and tells you what memory they offer that will work.

 

[Deltona_Dave]

+1 on Crucial.com. Their memory is OEM for many systems too. If you want good memory at a fair price, Crucial. If you need high performance gaming/server memory, try Corsair.

Forget the cheap chinese/no name Ebay memory. Remember with computers, you get what you pay for.

Crucial's configurator will give you a ball-park on memory speed and specs. Their prices are on par with most others, espcially if they have free shipping going on.

Dave

 

[mitsuman47]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll see her tomorrow, so I'll do the crucial.com scan and see what we need.

 

[sxg6]

Something like this should be exactly what you need, that's very common memory. I'd steer clear of "gateway specific" memory if crucial suggests that, it's overpriced and unnecessary. Generic stuff like in the link below will work fine. As others have suggested, use crucials tool to double check the memory specs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148086

 

[mitsuman47]

So, I ran the Crucial program and it told me what memory to get. Now, I have another question. Should I get 2 gigs or 4? She's running vista, but only has this processor (intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2310 @ 1.46GHz Model 15, Stepping 13)

Would I notice a difference between 2 and 4 gigs?

 

[JSP]

For the price of memory I would go with 4GB that way you don't have to upgrade a year or so from now. The amount of memory you need is totally dependent on the O/S you use and the applications you run. That is kind of a slow cpu, you might just consider upgrading to a new computer. Another thought is Vista is slow, Win7 much better.

 

[WishIhadatruck]

2 GB is a minimum these days. If the cost isn't prohibitive then I'd get 4GB if that is an option.