Introduction

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a shiny new Dell Inspiron XPS2 notebook - it's pretty much the "King of the Hill" when it comes to performance desktop replacement notebooks. It comes with a 2GHz or 2.13GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of Dual Channel DDR-2 PC4200 memory, nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra graphics, 17" Ultra Sharp wide screen LCD and a bunch of other cool features which make it a kick ass notebook, among the best money can buy right now in fact.

However, when ordering the notebook through Dell, I was silly not to take the option of adding extra memory to my new toy. As standard, the XPS2 comes with 2 x 256MB sticks, but you can choose from 2 x 512MB or even 2 x 1GB modules to be installed for you but it's a little costly and can be done cheaper yourself afterwards. After receiving the notebook from Dell with only 512MB, I was a little disappointed with the overall performance of the new beastie notebook. When mildly multi-taking in Windows, things got a little sluggish, and even with the most expensive mobile CPU and GPU parts, new games didn't work that well at all.

How much does the XPS2 cost?

You've just spent well over two grand USD on your new toy and performance isn't up to scratch, but why? One of the most important aspects of a notebook (especially one which will replace your desktop computer) is memory. Since notebook hard drives usually aren't as fast as regular 3.5" desktop drives which typically spin at 7,200 RPM and above, it is important to have as much memory in your notebook as possible. Particularly since I choose a 5,400 RPM 2.5" drive (Toshiba MK8026GAX 80GB to be exact), memory is even more important to take strain off the hard drive when things start getting intensive.

Our friends at Crucial Technology were good enough to send me two of their 1GB notebook memory modules (known as SO-DIMM) to upgrade my notebook. They sent two of their 1GB DDR-2 PC4200 SO-DIMM modules and I decided to write an article discussing the benefits of increasing the memory size of your notebook as well as showing how to physically install more memory.