Buy as much memory you can afford or the laptop will support. You can go to just about any memory manufacturers website and easily choose the correct sticks. The site will do all the work for you.

Get a dedicated video card.

Oh, a fifty-six watt-hour battery? I think that means that if the computer as a whole (CPU plus peripherals) is drawing 56 watts, it will run for an hour. Can someone tell me if that interpretation is incorrect?

Yes - RAM modules are happiest if they fit the sockets, so the number of pins is non-negotiable. Any reputable memory with those specs will work fine. I have used aftermarket memory from Kingston, Crucial, and Patriot with no problems.

Watt-hour battery pack rating
 

Your interpretation is correct that 56 watt-hour battery pack will yield one hour battery life if notebook PC consumes 56 watt-hour energy. But most notebook PCs range from 15-30 watt-hours in total power consumption. Some processors are cooler than others, specifically Intel processors rated as ULV (ultra low voltage) are the coolest, compared to non-ULV Intel & AMD processors. I don't believe AMD offers ULV processors yet.

I would like to see some of those. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_power_dissipation, many mobile CPUs draw that much alone, and the total has to account for the graphics processor and display lighting.

A couple of things to keep in mind, [1] the motherboard and chipset you have use a dual-channel memory config. When using more than one DIMM you will get noticeably better performance by insuring that both modules are exactly the same; same capacity and same bus and operating speed and [2] Windows XP Pro 32 and Vista 32 will only recognize up to 3 GBs of RAM. You have to go to XP Pro 64 or Vista 64 to get OS support for more than 3 GBs.

My [specific] advice would be to simply go to www.newegg.com and buy [2] 1-GB sticks of Corsair ValueSelect RAM, 200pin SO-DIMM PC5300, 667MHz - great price - great RAM - done.

Thanks - I got very similar advice on notebookreview.com. Almost all memory is the same, despite some sales people insisting i need to get dell specific memory :rolleyes:

Look for DDR2 800 SO-DIMM memory modules. All DDR2 SO-DIMM modules have 200 pins. They are a commodity, so you can take advantage of commodity pricing on them.

Any of them will work. DDR2 800 is the sweet spot right now, plus that matches the speed of your FSB. Buy a matched pair of memory modules to take advantage of dual channel memory and replace both memory modules at the same time.

The i1720 can take up to 2G per slot. So you can upgrade to 2 x 1G or 2 x 2G.

Something like this will work just fine (2 x 1G):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146722

Or two of these (1 x 2G each, because it's cheaper to buy them separately right now):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227250

Memory is ridiculously cheap these days. You can pay more for exactly the same thing made by another company, but you won't be able to tell the difference (assuming the same speed, CAS latency, etc).

Save the original memory modules in the plastic package the new ones come in, just in case you need to return your notebook for service. In that case, remove the new ones, put the old ones back in and then send it in for service. There's only one small screw to remove on the bottom of the notebook to expose the memory slots.

-David

Thanks.. I think the speed of my memory is PC2-5300 667Mhz, so why would I go for faster RAM if I can't take advantage of it?

The motherboard will just slow faster RAM down to 667.

The only reason for buying/using faster than spec RAM is if [1] the faster RAM is the same price as the spec RAM and [2] you foresee yourself upgrading to a laptop with faster RAM/FSB speeds in the very near future.

right thanks. Well neither holds true so I am sticking with 667Mhz RAM.

Your FSB is 800Mhz. That's what you said in the OP.

The memory that they shipped with your laptop is slower than 800Mhz. I said in my post "DDR2 800 is the sweet spot right now, plus that matches the speed of your FSB." That means your front side bus is capable of supporting DDR2 800 memory, but they shipped it with slower memory in order to save a few bucks. Since you're planning on replacing the memory, you might as well get the fastest memory your laptop processor will support. But you can go with the slower and slightly cheaper stuff if you want to. Either one will work, but for that matter, Dell branded memory will work too, but you're not buying that because presumably you have become an intelligent and informed consumer.

Go with whatever you want. It won't matter to me. :)

-David

This isn't necessarily true - at least not in the way you intended.

Many motherboards [north/southbridge chipsets] and CPUs have stability issues when running at 1:1 with RAM - particularly with less-than top-of-the-line RAM.

In fact until recently if you wanted to run 1:1 you almost had to use very expensive and part-specific validated RAM.

I for one have no problem believing that Sony, Dell, et al run RAM out of sync with the FSB simply in order to make their systems more stable.

Of course increased stability means fewer BSODs and fewer CS and on-site tech calls [which means they also save money] but this can be a good thing for the consumer and only a small fraction of theoretical performance is lost.

Well, the laptop manufacturers design their systems based on the specs of the chipset, the CPU, and of course the RAM. They aren't going to ship anything that will fail out of its normal tested range. It's really simple: if RAM running at such-and-such a speed will work as tested at spec at given corners (room temperature, etc.) they will sell it; if not, they won't. It's not a matter of making "judgement calls" about stability or number of blue sceens. It meets specs or it doesn't. Computer design of the innards nowadays is largely a science, not an art.

If a design meets specs, then marketing decisions are made as well cost decisions. Slower RAM may be sold in a laptop to save a few pennies (remember, a few pennies here and there all add up especially when millions of units are shipped), and for marketing reasons they may want to sell faster RAM in more expensive systems. It's one more thing to help justify charging more for higher-end systems.

If there are stability issues with faster RAM, then the BIOS will limit the speed to the slower speed. I looked up the specs, and I don't see anything preventing it from working with DDR2 800 memory. In fact, the configurator at crucial says it supports both speeds. The chipset and the CPU both support 800MHz fsb, and it's advertised at supporting the 800Mhz fsb.

Usually problems like not being able to run 1:1 are when chipsets are new and new CPU lines and architectures first come out. The components in this notebook are not new. It's a very mature CPU and chipset. Plus, I would think it would be easier to run 1:1 vs asynchronous.

-David