Today, I tried to install some DDR2 SODIMM 1GBx2 667Mhz RAM from my Lenovo Thinkpad T61 into my sister’s Dell E1505 and I encountered some problems. After installing the ram, the computer would power on, but turn right back off after 2 seconds. I tried the original ram, and it sometimes had this problem. After resetting the RAM many times, the computer worked with both the old and the new ram. So finally, I got the new ram to work. This type of behavior is so strange.
When I installed my Corsair 2x2GB DDR2 667 SODIMM MAC Memory into my T61 Thinkpad, everyone when fine. No problems at all. And it passed Memtest86+ 2.11 with flying colors.
So, in other words, don’t get a Dell. Or at least not a E1505.
Monitor calibrator – so I can edit photos properly and see pictures in the right color. [<$100]
2GB DDR2 667 SODIMM RAM for my Lenovo T61 laptop so I can have a total of 3GB of RAM, the max allowed on Windows XP 32-bit edition. [$20 when on sale]
Logitech Nano mouse [$70]
Because I want many button which increases my productivity.
2.5” IDE Enclosure for the 40GB HDD from the Toshiba laptop [$20]
2.5mm Audio Cable – male to male [<$5]
connect my speakers and everything without having to reconnect everything
USB Sharing Device – I don't want to connect and reconnect devices. [$20]
Lenovo Thinkpad Battery - $150 [if Visa Warranty works, it will be free]
Slimline 5.25” ODD USB Enclosure - $20
KVM Device
23” LCD for $150 on sale – to see the whole world. Large.
Wireless Router with QoS, but not necessarily 802.11n. [$100]
QoS allows me to upload and not affect VOIP which is the number one problem we have with our internet phone service
802.11n is not needed unless you are transferring a lot of files across the network wirelessly. I personally only used wire networks because they are faster and more reliable.
SSD [costs a lot of dinero]
They are so much faster than traditional spinning hard drives.
My computer’s current bottleneck is the hard drive and not my CPU. My CPU is the bottleneck only when I am encoding. For example, when I am uncompressing files, the CPU usage is moderate while my hard drive is thrashing like crazy.
I would only get a low capacity drive because they cost a lot.
Unfortunately, the DDR2 1066 only cost $5 more after rebate. But I already bought this one before I noticed.
I had some issues with this RAM. I needed to manually set the RAM settings at 4-4-4-15 at 2.1V or else the computer would reboot when trying to load Windows, WinPE or the like.
