Crucial's SO-DIMM Memory Upgrades for notebooks makes all the difference.

With Microsoft Vista now available for both desktop PCs and notebooks, users will have to decide whether it's worth their while to install and upgrade their ram, in order to take full advantage of Vista's eye-candy features. Even if you're still running Windows XP (like me), upgrading and installing more ram won't hurt. In fact, if you're system is running slow for sluggish, installing more ram for your desktop PC is the best way to improve system performance. The same thing would apply to notebooks.

       

When it comes to notebooks, memory size has always been overlooked by the user. Screen size and processor speed seem to be more important.  I remember my first ever notebook. It was a NEC model running Windows 98 using 128Mb of ram (boy, it brings back some good memories). Today, 512Mb or even 1Gb is quite the norm ... but is this really enough? To take full advantage of Windows Vista, especially when you're running it on a notebook, 1Gb may just about cope ... I'd say 2Gb would be on the safe side.

Crucial not only makes quality ram for desktop PCs, but they also produce ram for notebooks. In all our previous reviews of Crucial ram, their award winning Ballistix series are really second to none. You're guaranteed good quality, great performance and excellent value for money.

In this review we'll be taking a look at Crucial's DDR2 PC2-5300 SO-DIMM 2Gb Kit. SO-DIMMs are very much different to your standard DDR/DDR2 ram. For starters, it's designed for notebooks and only has 200-pins, so it will be shorter in length. These modules are rated at DDR-667 with a speed of 333Mhz, and has memory timings of 5-5-5-15.

       

As I explained in our Toshiba Satellite Pro U200 review, I can forsee a lot more consumers switching over to notebooks over the next few years. I for one, have already done so. With more people owning notebooks, so will the demand for upgrades and accessories rise. The more ram, the smoother the system will run ... and it's probably one of the first upgrades users will buy for their notebooks. The reason is quite simple, it's easy to install and does not require a high level of technical expertise.

OK, let's take a look at the specs and see how easy it is to install these memory modules ...