Hp Pavilion Dv5t-1100 CTO memory upgrade Question

[nrushton]

Sure thing, I'm quite excited that I can upgrade the memory. And I have already done a trial run of remove and reinstall my existing.
Navious here.
Thank again.
n

[gkline]

I was going to do this as well, but unfortunately the time for optimal prices for DDR2 memory has passed.  They say memory always gets cheaper, but only to a point.  The older memory starts increasing in price as the demand for it wanes.  You're now looking at $160 to upgrade a dv5t to 8Gb of RAM, as opposed to $60 for 4Gb of RAM!  Meanwhile, 8Gb of DDR3 (2x4Gb) is had for around $60.

I think it's probably better to upgrade to a newer laptop and benefit from faster memory at cheaper prices.  I've really enjoyed my dv5t, despite the terrible battery life.  But now I think it's time to relegate it to back-up use.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Wow!

You can say that again how the price of DDR2 4 GB memory modules has jumped!

Last year, I paid $80 or so for this very set.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220384

That is correct. The older memory gets, the more expensive it becomes as mfr's abandon manufacturing it in great quantities to meet demand and focus production on the newer chips (DDR3 right now).

Paul

[gkline]

One other thing that is important to note is that going from 4Gb to 8Gb of RAM will increase memory overhead and power drain.  Given the architecture of the system (motherboard, data buses, CPU, etc), 8Gb will not improve things at all.  The only exception might be if you're doing intense program compilations, but then a programmer of that type would be doing it on a workstation or a much more heavy duty laptop.

The best upgrade you can do for your aging dv5 is to move to an SSD drive.  The speeds are blazingly fast compared to traditional HDD.  The reason why?  No moving parts.  So not only is data read/write faster, there is less of a power drain on the system so the battery lasts longer.

Another thing is that I've read Windows 8 is a more efficient operating system over Vista and W7.  Start-up times alone are notably faster.  So, with the $40 upgrade incentive to move to W8, there's a seriously inexpensive way to improve your laptop.