Best RAM upgrade for netbook?

[Skiz]

I have a brand new Dell Mini 10v. It's capable of running 2GB of RAM but Dell only offers a max of 1GB.

I found a tutorial for opening the laptop and installing the RAM which recommends this RAM -

G.SKILL 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Laptop Memory Model F2-4200CL4S-2GBSK

but I went to crucial and the following appears to be a better stick of RAM for only $2 more so I'll likely go with this one.

Crucial - 2GB, 200-pin SODIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module

Are there any better options than what I've found or no?

[Snee]

Ihe following appears to be a better stick of RAM for only $2 more so I'll likely go with this one.

Crucial - 2GB, 200-pin SODIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module

I think I've got some Crucial RAM in my old Asus EEE. Works just fine. Decent budget brand.

Two things to consider though:

1. Assuming it'll boot with either kind, I doubt the performance difference'd be very noticable what with neetbooks being what they are. Having said that, if I were you I'd still go with the Crucial. But I'd do it after checking that the Dell can use RAM of that speed and voltage.

When I've gotten ram for laptops lately I've gone to a local store to get it, and I've made them promise me I could bring it back if it didn't work with my hardware, since I first asked them and they said it would.

2. If you plan to use hibernation, that's 2 gigs of space reserved for that, instead of 1.

EDit:

Also:

Crucial's site says it's compatible.

And furthermore, I think Corsair offers a comparable stick. I'm a big fan of corsair RAM.

[Skiz]

Thanks for the input. Pardon my lack of RAM knowledge but, could you explain this a bit further -

2. If you plan to use hibernation, that's 2 gigs of space reserved for that, instead of 1.

I only got a 16GB SSD in the netbook, so....

[Snee]

Welp. Hibernation, assuming you get it to work on that ubuntu () you ordered, dumps the contents of your ram to disc. That way you can continue later on with what you were doing, even though you actually turned your computer off, rather than just putting it to sleep like stand-by mode does.

So you pretty much need to have 2gigs of disc space free for that, if you plan on using it.

I really don't know if there's much point in using it, though, since that ssd should halp you boot hella fast, and it's not THAT hard to reopen your browser or save what you're working on so you can load it up later.

[Skiz]

Ah, yes... the swap drive.

My brain was in Windows mode when I was typing that out, but I'm with you now. The SSD has it booting pretty quick. I timed it the other day at 6 sec shutdown and 27 sec complete boot up. I'll just leave the swap partition at 1GB I guess and see how that goes. I'm not installing a bunch of stuff on it (just FF and open office) so I think it'll be fine.

[lynx]

Actually, it's not the swap drive. That's used for virtual memory (like windows page file) while the system is up and running.

The hibernation file is used for an image of the physical memory while the system is physically switched off. Effectively the system is put into "pseudo" standby mode, then a copy of the memory is dumped to this file and the system is switched off.

If you've ever had problems with devices recovering from standby, expect much more of the same with hibernation.

[Snee]

What Lynx said, sort of.

Ubuntu uses the swap partition or file for hibernation, though, afaik.

If you aren't using that, leaving it at 1 gig should be fine, I think.

You could also see if you can't get rid of the swapping altogether, might let your ssd last longer, I dunno.

A couple of the tweaked distros set up especially for netbooks have it turned off by default iirc.

Ubuntu says...

[lynx]

I don't agree with the option of removing the swap file.

The golden rule always used to say make a swap file 1 to 2 times the size of your physical memory, but monitor it's use for a while. If it is used more than a minimal amount then you are short of memory, so either add more or stop using it for other purposes such as cache buffers. AFAIK the tuning of buffers is done automatically to minimise the use of swap space. We used to have to do it manually!

The thing is if you run out of memory (including swap space) then things are going to start falling over, and that may include the kernel. Far better to have it there but unused except for emergencies.

Remember, this isn't Windoze, so swap space is only used when necessary.

[j2k4]

Skiz-

What'd you pay for yours?

I'm poking around, thinking about a netbook; something reasonably durable (field-work) without opting for a ToughBook or summat.

HP is having a clearance, and I optioned one out at, like, 560 USD (wireless pkg w/Bluetooth, 32G SS "cartridge", big batt, etc., Win XP); want to do some mapping/topo work with occasional interweb/email usage...

[Skiz]

I think it was $416 after all was said and done.

Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz
1 GB DDR2 RAM
10.1 inch screen
16 GB solid state. I figured with as much as I'll be carrying this around, I wanted the SSD. I'll be ghosting that and upgrading eventually but, waiting for pricing to become somewhat reasonable.
802.11n internal mini wireless card
6-cell battery (the biggest one). Gives like 6 hours of usage.

The keyboard is great. I tested out several netbooks and I liked the keyboard on this one the best.

I've even put Mac OS X on it too.