The Eee PC has been my full-time mobile device for a few weeks now. We’ve already covered first impressions and setup so it’s time to look into the first of many upgrades. This article will go over something almost every Eee PC user should consider- upgrading the system’s memory.
Just to get you up to speed- the Eee PC’s stock operating system can handle up to 1GB of RAM. This means that if you bought any model except for the 8GB then you might want to upgrade the memory. The popular PC 4G, the first model to be released, comes with 512MB so if you have five minutes to burn you can double your memory.
As far as RAM goes, your concerns for the Eee PC are very simple. You are looking for a 1GB DDR2-667 SODIMM, basically a 1GB stick of DDR2 laptop memory that runs with a speed of 667MHz (also known as PC2-5300). This is common memory, so you can probably pull it from another notebook that you bought recently or you can just buy it online. The price should be somewhere between $20 and $40 depending on where you buy it and what brand you opt for.
The Eee PC has just a single slot for RAM so the maximum amount you can get in there is 2GB. The default installation of Xandros will only recognize up to 1GB of RAM so if you want to take full advantage of a move to 2GB you will have to either install Windows XP or a different Linux distribution. A 1GB stick does the job just fine, so wanting to upgrade to 2GB is not reason enough to change the OS, but if you are going to change your OS anyway, this is a great option.
Also, there has been some confusion about if upgrading the memory (or even opening the panel on the bottom) will void your warranty. According to a little yellow sticker on the bottom covering a screw, breaking the sticker will void the warranty. This was a major complaint with early Eee PC users, but it’s nothing to complain about any more because Asus has issued it’s official warranty policy. According to the policy, “ASUS wishes to assure its customers that merely breaking or removing this kind of seal will not void the ASUS Limited Warranty.”
As for actually changing the memory, it takes just a minute or two. You simply need to open up the bottom panel by removing two screws, remove the old memory, pop in the new one, and close things up. Of course, the system should be powered down and unplugged when doing this. If you want a video walkthrough, someone was nice enough to put one on YouTube.
Once the bottom panel is in place you just need to power the system on as normal. At this point there should be almost no difference from before, though the process might go a bit faster. Increasing the RAM should make the system better at multitasking (not that you can do a whole lot of this in 800×480) and it will make operation snappier. Don’t expect anything incredible–the limiting factor is still the Celeron processor–but this is a very worthwhile upgrade considering the small price tag and easy installation.
