Upgrading system memory is one of the most cost-effective upgrades for computers, and this is especially true if you have upgraded to Windows Vista. Vista needs a lot more memory than XP to run smoothly and, while the rest of our notebook was quite capable of running Vista, the 512MB of memory held it back.

Once we upgraded to 2GB, there was an 8% improvement in the benchmark PC Mark. This doesn't tell the whole story as the subjective improvement was more impressive. Windows Vista took less time to start up and felt a lot more responsive.

Step by step
The first step is to buy new memory. The kind of memory required may be included in the notebook documentation, otherwise the Memory Advisor tool at Crucial.com is very helpful. Most notebooks have the memory cards installed in pairs to improve performance. The disadvantage of this is that the existing memory cannot be used.

The memory cards are installed under a panel normally on the underside of the notebook. There may be a picture to show the location of the memory, or the panels may be labelled with letters. This is common on many Dell notebooks. In this case, check the documentation for more information.

Unscrew the panel carefully and keep the screws on one side. Remove the existing memory by pulling back the catches on either side and the memory card should pop out. Insert the new cards and replace the panel on the back of the notebook.

There is nothing else to be done as Windows (both XP and Vista) will automatically detect the new memory and start using it.