3gb works better than 2gb only after the 2gb is used up... if that makes any sense. When you dont have enough ram things slow down as you open more and more windows and do stuff it starts swapping data to the hard drive which is quite slow compaired to the ram.

...next chapture...
What happens with an unmatched pair of dual channel memory sticks is it runs in single channel mode,,,,, and when you browse the web or run light duty applications that arent needing more than two gb it slows down everything, because two wires are faster than one -

--- not tons slower but it is noticable,,, ive experimented here. Bought 4gb and my laptop only handles 2gb(acpi irq holder, bummer) so I tried with just one 2gb module,, and it was instantly a noticable bit slower than running 2 sticks of 1gb modules. Lost the snappyness.

Sort of kind of ...DDR2 ram is kind of like a double lane highway and when it runs unmatched pair of memory sticks bios switches it into plain DDR mode and that highway now narrows to a single lane.

Thanks, Mikie. So if a machine comes with 2g (2- 1g slots) its works faster if you put two more gigs in to make it 4gigs? Or just leave it at 2gigs? Don't put 3gigs?

Somehow I think I understand what you are saying, but can't put it into words. 2 gigs is better than 3. Four gigs is better than 3??

I like 'snappy.'

Jane

yep.
4gigg, if the laptop says its capable of 4gb is great. But 2x 1gb is still faster for light duty browsing and stuff that doesnt swap, in 32 bit windows anyhow. heh.
Most current popular laptops will have two memory slots - each slot can handle a mamimum of 2gb. Memory makers make mostly 512mb, 1gb, and 2gb memory modules that fit popular laptops.

I dont remember how long DDR2/667 dual channel laptop memory has been around, but its fairly new. Before it was DDR and a slower bus speed.

Newest of the new 3gb Intel Centrino dual core Mobile processors,,, what ever intel calls it.. those laptops once out are supposed to use DDR3/1033hz laptop memory from what ive read,,, which is about as fast as it gets in most high performance desktops right now.

What's the world coming too? 2 Gbytes of RAM for "light duty browsing"!

I'm still running, even at the moment, a machine with 1/2 GByte of RAM, and it seems fast enough to my brain...says something about my brain, I guess.

Vista's overly pricey home versions browse the web and do email more than happy enough on 1gb. Do much more than that and you'll appreciate more ram. But you'll probably complain that it doesnt feel faster on more ram, until you do a lot more.

I notice the difference when I open applications like Word or Excel. During the day I work on numerous documents and need to make changes and keep a lot of things open and running. I have to scan many documents, so I have OCR software running all day. When you are working, you need to get to things fast. I also leave my emails open, radio playing,etc. I get so bored sitting at a computer all day, a slow machine would drive me crazy.

Your comment was interesting because my computer at work has 2gigs, my home machine (which I work from also) has 3 gigs. The 2g seems 'snappier' than the 3g. I could be wrong, but it makes sense. Both are dual core and XP pro.

Funny, because my older machine (5yrs) has 512 and never bothered me before. Now I find it slow, which I didn't before.

I hope I can find a laptop with that same zip.

Thanks for the explanation,
Jane