How to upgrade your M1530 to 6GB of RAM

[Rhodan]

Yes that's right! I have upgraded my M1530 to 6GB of RAM. For quite a while I've been saying the M1530 (Santa Rosa Chipset) can support more than 4GB of RAM. With the recent substantial price drop for 4GB sodimm I decided to test this.

Here how it's done...


1. You need to get a 4GB sodimm. The one below works fine.






2. Install the 4GB sodimm in slot B as shown.




3. Boot into your BIOS and confirm you see over 6000MB.




4. Install your favorite 64bit OS or boot into it if already installed.



I did try 2 4GB sodimm in the M1530. For whatever reason slot A will not recognize the 4GB module. This might be correctable by a BIOS upgrade.

So there you go, the maximum RAM supported by the M1530 is 6GB with BIOS A09.

Edit: I've started a request to allow the M1530 BIOS to support 4GB in both slots on IdeaStrom.
Here's the link http://www.ideastorm.com/article/sho...30__Make_it_so


An extra 2GB in 64bit is nice to have! Enjoy.

[atbnet]

Very nice! Santa Rosa does support up to 8GB but as you can see, the BIOS is holding that back. It would be nice of Dell to open that option up for those who could use the extra RAM.

[psygn]

That's neat! How much of a performance gain would I see with 4GB -> 6GB in apps and games?

[Jamaicanyouth]

I would get it but 4 gigs are more than enough.

[Jamaicanyouth]

That's neat! How much of a performance gain would I see with 4GB -> 6GB in apps and games?

None, unless you are running virtual machines.
4 -> 6 is not a performance increase, just more RAM.

[Rhodan]

That's neat! How much of a performance gain would I see with 4GB -> 6GB in apps and games?

Not sure what the performance gain would be but with superfetch the more the better... I have a HD camera and converting from AVCHD to other formats takes a lot of resources so the extra 2GB will help in my case... Actually going from 4GB 32bit to 6GB 64bit you gain 2.5GB. Even better.

[I♥RAM]

As for now, once you have 4 gigs and not requiring massive screen rendering, the way to increase performance would be a higher-end processor (possibly quad cores, which is overkill too), a better GPU and a better HD (SSD or something faster than your current one).

Performance will be top of the line, but after upgrading from there I think the human brain cant process the difference between a few milliseconds.

[psygn]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

I want an SSD drive, but they are just way too expensive for me.

[xboxgon]

I'm just wondering, will this work on an m1330?

[Rhodan]

I'm just wondering, will this work on an m1330?

No idea, someone else will have to try that one. Unless I can convince a friend of mine to let me crack her brand spanking new M1330 open... I get the feeling she will not cooperate...