Laptop memory upgrade

[khpuce]

Hi everybody,

I have a lot of experience in building desktop computers. Now, I want to upgrade the memory of my laptop but I've no idea about laptops apart from using it. Can I buy a laptop memory and replace it by just opening the case (as we do for desktops) or do I have to go to a dealer to do the job? Do any of you guys have any experience in upgrading laptops?

[Waldo2k2]

there should be a cover on the bottom you pop off. You can do it yourself, make sure you buy SODIMM ram though instead of DIMM (SODIMM is much smaller and is used in laptops), and then as always make sure you don't buy ram that's too fast as you're wasting your money if you do.

[khpuce]

Thanks for your tips Waldo2k2.

I've looked at the price of different memories and it seems quite expensive (512 mb is £105-£120) . Some of my friends are saying to save some money and buy a new laptop (my one is dell inspiron 8100, 866 Mhz, 128 mb memory) as in their opinions its not worth spending that much on an old laptop.

Hmmm...now I am really confused

[ober]

I don't know. I just looked on www.pricewatch.com and found Kingston 512 DDR Laptop Dell RAM for $90 USD w/ shipping.

[Waldo2k2]

yeah, you need to learn the value of "shopping around" kh.

Often the first place you find will be the most expensive. I recommend portatech.com . Sometimes tigerdirect.com and newegg.com will have sales which make them competitive. But I'd try portatech first. When selecting ram, especially since it's an old laptop, select the cheapest (and slowest refresh rate) ram in whatever speed you choose (usually after you select what speed you want (ddr 2100,2700,etc or sdram), select the ram option on the far left, that will be the cheapest).

[EvBladeRunnervE]

I would go with newegg.com, I have shopped with them numerous times(have spent well over a thousand dollars including relatives money) and have nothing but good to say about their service. They are also the most respected US dealer in the entire marketplace(by US dealer I mean only ships to US, not as a "US Dealer"). They often have pretty dang good prices, and unlike portatech, which only has a 3.3 rating on reselleratings.com(not to mention the lowly number of reviews) http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2751.html .

Newegg.com has a 9.8 rating, and has thousands of reviews to back it up:

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2121.html
.

so if the prices are a few dollars more, I would still recommend newegg, or excaliburpc.com(if you are into getting the exact steppings on processors/mobo you want).

[khpuce]

Thanks guys but all the websites you talked about are US sites not UK sites . I am not interested in ordering from foreign websites because it may take a long time to arrive and specially I am told that if I order from a foreign site then I'll have to pay the tax

[khpuce]

Whoops...my mistake...I've just searched http://www.resellerratings.com and found a number of uk sites. Now I'm gonna check those...