Dell Inspiron E1505 Upgrade Adivce

gregrocker · 09 Oct 2011

Some have experienced drag with 64 bit on 2gb or less RAM. It depends on what you use it for.

What is your experience with 2gb RAM using 64 bit Win7?

Let's hear what others have to advise.

Beta · 10 Oct 2011

Works great and I have two sticks of DDR 333 running single channel since that is all the CPU supports. Has been my flagship laptop for 5 years now and it still has life left in it. I do limited gaming on it and I use SolidWorks x64 2011 on it and it works great. When it comes to the OS it is all how you manage it and how you use it. The ram on x64 idles higher the x32. So people think that means that lower ram computers should not use it. This is untrue. Microsoft in there "wonderful" thinking thought that they should put more ram in idle ie when you start a program and then close it the program stays in the ram until Windows needs that space.

lhorwinkle · 10 Oct 2011

Win 7 in 2 GB of RAM is like putting an elephant into a phone booth. It may fit, but it isn't pretty.

I run Win 7 on a box with 8 GB RAM. It uses 2.5 GB while sitting there idle, running no apps (just the usual background services and desktop cute stuff).

I wouldn't think of running Win 7 with so little RAM. Better to add memory or buy a bigger box.

gregrocker · 10 Oct 2011

I would strip your OS down to the cleanest boot possible, ideally only AV running at Startup.

To do this, enter msconfig>Startup and uncheck everything you don't absolutely need to start with Windows, which drains CPU/ram, slows startup and can spy on you. Check back after reboots that nothing writes itself back in, or turn it off in it's Program Prefs or uninstall it. s

Do the same with msconfig>Services after hiding all MS services. After a day of making sure nothing sneaks back into either list, see what your idle RAM/CPU has become.

pebbly · 10 Oct 2011

Dell insisted my I9400 would only support 2GB ram ,searching around the internet I found people saying it was possible to run 4GB so I tried an extra 2GB and voila no problems ,It may be worth trying an extra 2Gb in the I6400/E1505 :)

dudejoe4 · 10 Oct 2011

thanks for the info. i'll probably put the 32bit version on it.

kegobeer · 10 Oct 2011

The 1505 doesn't support more than 2GB. I have the 1705/9400, which does, as well as owning a 1505, which doesn't support it.

Windows 7 runs just fine on a system with 2GB.

lhorwinkle · 10 Oct 2011

"1505 ... doesn't support it.
That's what I read all over the web. Dell says no. Users say no. So I guess it's no. Just 2 GB max in an E1505.

Nightreaper · 10 Oct 2011

Hi,

I also searched internet to find Dell say "NO" and some user's say "NO", however I also found some user said "YES"

I suppose it depends on your chipset and the Dell BIOS they used!

Now it just so happens that i had a family member bring me a laptop to sort out some issues, now being the inquisitive type

I started to check out the components in this laptop. Yes you guessed it, it had the same spec ram as mine, only this baby had a 2gb stick in it

.
Well it had to be done

, moments later ram swapped over and my i6400 is booting and the dell bios is complaining that ram spec has changed "PRESS F1 TO ENTER BIOS", so enter bios new ram amount showing

escape bios reboot laptop and boots to windows just fine

.
So its now got 3gb ram and windows 7 32bit, it's used for general laptop tasks and runs just fine. Decided to stay with 32bit to limit driver issues, also this laptop has no dell "bloatware" installed.

Sorry forgot to say hope this helps! and suppose the only way to be sure is get hold of a stick and try!

kegobeer · 10 Oct 2011

Nightreaper said: