Hands on: Bridging the memory gap

Can adding memory to your laptop have unforeseen consequences for Vista users?

In this column we’ll be looking into ways of improving the performance of laptops running Windows Vista.

The various caching technologies used by Vista may improve performance once your system is up and running, but at the cost of slow startup times.

We’ve switched our test laptop from Vista to XP. Here we’ll examine the effect of adding more Ram to both the Vista and XP installations.

Installing Ram in a laptop
Laptops may be fairly restricted in terms of hardware upgrades compared to their desktop counterparts, but increasing the Ram is fortunately quite straightforward.

Most laptops use Sodimm memory cards, which are smaller than traditional desktop Dimms. Small to mid-size laptops will normally have one memory card slot, while bigger models may have two.

These slots are generally accessible from behind a removable panel on the underside of the laptop – indeed on many laptops, it’ll be the only part of the case you can ‘officially’ open. The slots also work in the same way as desktops, with a clip on each side holding the Dimm card in place. Before opening the case and replacing memory, we’d recommend removing the battery and AC power cord.

The prices quoted by laptop manufacturers for memory upgrades could have you fearing the worst, but it’s quite affordable when sourced independently. As with desktop memory, we’d advise entering your model into online databases such as those of Crucial.

There we found that while our Sony Vaio TZ150N laptop only had one slot, meaning the existing 1GB Sodimm would have to be removed, we could fit a brand new 2GB Sodimm for just £30.99 inc Vat. Once the part arrived, we had it fitted in minutes.

Results
We timed how long it took from the Windows login screen to the point at which disk activity fell and consistently stayed below five per cent. We also timed how long it took to launch Photoshop CS3 once, followed by a second time (giving Vista a chance to cache it), and finally the time taken to completely shut down.

The Vaio TZ150N’s shipping configuration with Vista and 1GB of Ram hammered the hard disk for just over five minutes after logging in, during which time it was effectively unusable; it even took over three minutes before the gadget sidebar appeared on the desktop.

Launching Photoshop CS3 for the first time took 25 seconds, but closing and relaunching saw it cached and ready for action just six seconds later. Shutting down took just under a minute and a half.

Reducing the 26 startup items to eight essentials saw the time to low disk activity fall to just over a minute and a half, and shutting down took 56 seconds. Application launch times weren’t affected.

With the Ram doubled to 2GB our hopes were raised when the gadget sidebar appeared a relatively swift 20 seconds after logging in, but the disk kept chattering for almost eight minutes. That said, Photoshop subsequently launched in just six seconds the first time and five after that, while shutting down was quicker at 39 seconds.

The longer startup time shouldn’t be surprising as there’s simply more memory for Vista’s Superfetch to use as a cache. Once fully populated, the benefit of the extra Ram was apparent, with applications launching faster along with a feeling of quicker response. But it is important to note that doubling the Ram significantly slowed Vista’s startup times.

In an attempt to enjoy the best of both worlds, we disabled Superfetch, after which the startup time fell back down to a much more reasonable one minute and 39 seconds. The casualty was application launch times, with Photoshop taking 19 seconds the first time, although this fell to six seconds on subsequent launches.

After installing XP we repeated the tests with 1GB and 2GB of Ram and noted no difference in startup, application launch or shutdown speeds. But in terms of general use, especially with multiple applications running, the 2GB configuration felt much more responsive.

Thanks for the memory
Increasing Ram is a well-known solution for improving performance, but Vista’s Superfetch technology will simply take longer to fill it – and with slow laptop hard disks, that can result in a noticeably longer delay before the system becomes responsive.

That said, there are benefits to upgrading the Ram in a laptop and it’s possible to find a balance between startup and application performance. Just don’t assume you’ll get them with the default Vista configuration.