Yes, N00b alert.... Now stop gloating and focus!

I wanna upgrade the ram on my lappie. How do I go about finding out what I need?

Go to a store and tell them what brand and model your laptop is.

Make sure that you get at least 2 GB, and 4 GB if possible - but only 4 GB if you have a 64-bit processor AND 64-bit OS, otherwise you won't be able to use more than 3 GB.

errrmmmm that's a lot of Gs.... I read somewhere there was a max limit for my lappie. 2GBs

Then go for 2 GiB. That's what I've got. I have never used more then 1300 MiB at once.Yes, it's MiB, and not MB. kB = 1000 B, kiB = 1024 B.

I'm going to use that a lot now. 

*sigh*

You have to tell me exactly what laptop yo have, otherwise I can't tell exatcly what RAM you need.

compaq nx7010

I did a search online, but couldn't find anything

I'll search for you. Australia? 

Yes please

http://www.edgetechcorp.com/memory/upgrade.asp?cid=25500

That's maybe not in australia

Yeah, I saw that. Not in Aust

Your laptop have room for 2 RAM chips, so buy two 1 GiB RAMs

Looking at that page - what is the brand and type of ram?

RAM type: PC-2700 SO DIMM - HP OEM DC890B

So that was a link?

So if I take that to a comp shop here, they'll know what it is?

I hope so. Tell them that you have a Compaq NX7010 and that this RAM chip are supported by your PC.

(Remember PC-2700 SO DIMM - but SO DIMM is more important than PC-2700)

Ah! Okay, that's what I needed to know.

Thanks mate!

I grabbed a useful little doodad from Kingston's website that scans your computer and tells you exactly what kind of RAM you have installed and how much more you can add.

Now stored on a USB drive with all my other geeky tools and portable apps. 

This one? http://www.kingston.com/

@SK: I love portable apps! What apps is in your collection?

Let's see.. I have portable versions of 7-Zip, Clamwin antivirus, Filezilla (FTP client), Firefox, Foobar 2000 (actually that's just copied from my C drive, but it works), Foxit PDF reader, GIMP, InfraRecorder (CD/DVD burner) the IM client Miranda, Open Office, uTorrent and VLC Media player.

Then some things that only come as standalones (as opposed to portable versions of normal programs) - CPU Z, JkDefrag, Process Explorer, Restoration (file un-deleter) HiJack This, a lightweight http server, Killbox, VNC Viewer and 2 system-information scanner type things.

I also have one that stores the location of the main executables of all these things and acts as a launch bar.

Would still like to get hold of a lightweight/portable FTP server. I did look for a little while once but I either failed to find anything easily or got distracted by other things.

dek, sorry.. I screwed up remembering there, it was Crucial's website I got it from

You can find it here

Thanks!

Izarc (file compression), FF portable, GIMP, VLC, nu CD burner, Pidgin portable (IM+chat), CPU-Z, JkDefrag, Process Explorer, HiJack This, and +20 more. I'll make a list later.

Okay, I have what might be a really stupid question, but I haven't been able to resolve it in my own mind.

When I add more RAM, would my lappie run hotter, cooler, the same?

Shouldn't make a lot of difference. RAM isn't a big heat-producer, but it's unlikely to have much cooling effect.

Unless you were really short of RAM before, to the point where the system had to constantly page stuff off to the hard disk because it was short of memory... then the reduced disk activity could help a little.

Not a big effect either way.

Ahhh... okay....

Thanks!