upgrading the RAM...

[solipsistnation]

Okay, so I installed a 1GB DIMM in the Aspire One today. It was pretty touchy-- it was easier than, say, replacing the hard drive in my Powerbook G4, but pretty similar. (It was far easier than doing any work at all on any laptop Leading Edge ever sold, but, well, so is brain surgery. While drunk.)

Considering that the 1GB AA1 is a hundred bucks more than the 512MB model (and comes with the one slot filled with a 512MB DIMM, adding to the 512 soldered onto the motherboard, so if you wanted more than that you'd have to pop it out anyway), I think it was worth the trouble to save 85 bucks or so. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who doesn't have some good small screwdrivers and a very steady hand, though.

The extra memory does make a noticeable difference. Firefox in particular is much more responsive.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the little thing still. It got me through one meeting last week, and I suspect it'll be useful for upcoming meetings and going places where there's wireless. I should take it downtown to one of the cafes populated almost entirely by smug hipsters and drink beer on their balcony while posting to twitter.

Comments

[pir.livejournal.com]

Curious. Installing the 2Gb module in my eeepc was about as easy as installing memory in my albook (open a door with two screws, fit memory).

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Yes... Well, I think Asus realized that people might want to upgrade the RAM. Acer, on the other hand, made it almost an old-school Powerbook-type experience. And if I were to decide to upgrade the SDD faux disk thingy, that would be an even weirder experience, assuming I could find one that would fit.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

What model EEEpc? The originals also needed a kernel upgrade 'cos the kernel was limitted to 1Gb. (I did that last month ;-))

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

What? That's silly.

At least the AA1 detected the RAM without problems...

[sweh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I dunno why they compiled in that limit. It's not needed on the 900 series (and I presume the 1000 series as well); only the original 700 series. http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:install2gigkernel

[pir.livejournal.com]

701 at first, now a 900 (and tempted to upgrade to a 901 for better battery life). I'm running xubuntu on it so I'm not having to mess around with upgrading the stock kernel anymore, thankfully.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

acer = cheap :) also, that's the other reason besides the small keyboard I shied away from the <$500 laptop set -- because of the RAM.

[air-hadoken.livejournal.com]

You know, three years ago I bought my laptop for under $500, then upgraded the ram to 1.25GB for $80 (total cost something like $540).

Yes it's time to replace it, but it served me very well.