I have done a thing!

"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
09/25/2015 at 21:47 • Filed to: Did a thing

Nibby does computer stuff right? This ended up being easy but he might be proud of me. I never did this kind of thing before, I am way too proud of myself. I feel like when I did something on the car and realized it wasn’t as hard as I thought. My laptop kind of lagged with video when I was downloading and doing other things. I realized I had 8 gigs of RAM total and I could have 32. MOAR POWWWAHHH is what I said, as any good Jalop would. So I found out two empty secret slots were under my keyboard, so I ordered 4 X 8GB of RAM, then my screen was black when I tried to boot up. I googled the problem on my phone and found out I had to update my BIOS, so I took it out, updated, put it in and restarted. Voila! I also found the empty slot for another HD! I can put two SSDs in the thing if I want. I have an I7 chip so I figured why not update the computer since it’s doing ok otherwise. The old W123 has three small leaks that made a big one, one is an oil cooler hose, so I have to do that too. The Z is still not back up yet, so much to do...

DISCUSSION (18)

Sam > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/25/2015 at 21:58

I’m impressed that you took the keyboard off without breaking anything!

Funktheduck > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/25/2015 at 22:10

Nice. Strange that anything with an i7 would come

With such little ram.

Flavien Vidal > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/25/2015 at 22:39

If you already had 8gigs of ram, I highly doubt more ram would solve anything... And 32gigs of ram is WAY overkill. Unless you’re working on the special effects of the last James Cameron movies, you definitely don’t need that much lol :)

JGrabowMSt > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/25/2015 at 22:56

Which laptop? One of the bigger Dells or an Alienware?

I have a MacBook Pro with an i7 and 16gb of RAM, and I was a broadcast major in college, did lots of video editing and never had a hiccup. My desktop has 32gb of RAM, and I have maxed it out doing coloring on videos, but I don’t really go that far with most of my stuff.

For most users, 16 is overkill. Downloading and doing other stuff and streaming video at the same time? RAM isn’t really going to help with that, a faster hard drive will (disk buffer is filling with the video buffer while also juggling an incoming file, no bueno for a spinning drive, even at 10k RPM). SSD will do a decent job of reducing the lag, but if you did too much downloading on an SSD, you can certainly bork the read/write controller. I’ve seen it happen, and SSDs are an absolute nightmare to recover data from in the event of a failure.

Just saying. I was the lead tech at a shop for 5 years, and now I do IT work at a company that does HAI type work (home automation/integration). There is a company that’s actually called HAI, but I don’t work for them, I work at a different company.

The Dummy Gummy > JGrabowMSt
09/25/2015 at 23:05

Looks like a Toshiba to me. Interesting to see they each have similar ram layouts.

The video lag seems more a video card issue than ram. Lag with web browser and other apps would be memory. 32gb while good seems like way too much for a laptop to fully utilize; like you said.

Boxer_4 > Flavien Vidal
09/25/2015 at 23:36

I know someone with a workstation that has 256gb ram, however, they run multi-million element FEA models for a living. For the average person, 8 gb ram is usually enough.

Flavien Vidal > Boxer_4
09/25/2015 at 23:39

Yeah way enough... even with iRacing running on triple monitors, I rarely reach over 6gb... I have 8gb myself and even when editing videos, I don’t need more...

Nibby > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/25/2015 at 23:40

The biggest upgrade would be an SSD... 8GB RAM or more doesn’t make much of a difference if you’re just watching videos and surfing and emailing.

If you’re doing something intensive like 3D modeling, video editing, or high-end gaming that’s a different story.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/26/2015 at 00:11

Try adding/changing RAM in my laptop - it literally requires complete disassembly of motherboard.

Flavien Vidal > Funktheduck
09/26/2015 at 00:20

8gb is WAY enough for pretty much any laptop... Unless you’re doing serious infography or some After Effect work, nobody really needs more than 8gb of ram... and that includes hardcore gamers also...

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Nibby
09/26/2015 at 01:00

Well I tend to do three things at once, one is usually some video and it would skip on VLC. I do some things that require processing so I always watch things while I wait for things to finish. I now see another space for an HD so maybe I can get two SSDs. I guess the other would show up as another drive.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Sam
09/26/2015 at 01:04

It actually comes off with little snaps and is one piece, pretty easy.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > JGrabowMSt
09/26/2015 at 01:07

Well it’s not skipping now and I’m doing three things. That’s not my actual computer, but it is a nice wide screen Toshiba.

Sam > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/26/2015 at 03:29

That’s good. Me and a buddy in HS were contracted by a few of the teachers to do some computer repairs. We had to disassemble a ThinkPad and removing the keyboard was... harrowing, to say the least.

Nibby > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
09/26/2015 at 09:00

No point really getting 2 SSDs. Just get one 128GB/256GB one, install your OS there. Keep your videos/movies/pictures/music/documents on your HD (since HDs are significantly cheaper for lots of storage than SSDs).

Funktheduck > Flavien Vidal
09/26/2015 at 12:27

You're probably right. Gaming is more processor or graphics demanding.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Nibby
09/26/2015 at 13:21

Yeah putting the OS on the SSD is what I was thinking, leave the other one. Instead of getting a new laptop I will probably do the SSD at some point. When the Oculus Rift comes out I will attempt to build a gaming tower. I always build things for the E3 and GDC shows so I have been trying all the toys and I want some! Well my video isn’t skipping anymore I guess it’s just making the other processes so much easier it doesn’t effect the video. If I ever get another Toshiba Satellite maybe I can use this memory in it.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Nibby
09/26/2015 at 14:11

Holy crap I just used a program for work that usually needs a maybe 10 seconds to load each part I go through and now each one is ready to go in one second!