What Type Of RAM for my laptop is better

[phenomenal]

I really need an answer to this, when i google it, its giving me mixed results, and its a large criteria so I cant search it specifically

So, Considering I dont want to fork out too much money

What is better for multi-tasking, graphics, speed or anything generally improving on my laptop?

3GB Unmatched DDR2, 1GB at 667Mhz, 2GB at 800Mhz

2GB Matched DDR2, 2 x 1GB at 667Mhz

(Or, if it makes much of a further improvement) 4GB Matched DDR2, 2 x 2GB at 800Mhz

Ive heard that 2GB matched would be the best performance, and that 4GB matched wouldnt be faster, or atleast, unnoticably faster than 2GB matched

Also, If it does make a large difference with 4GB, Ive got onboard graphics, If im on 2GB unmatched atm, and I get 15 FPS on CS:S at top graphics, and the onboard vga being Intel GMA X3100, that is 384mb, so if i get 4GB would it increase the FPS much?

If it does not do much difference, I will not get 4GB Matched, considering, that the 2 Sticks are £60/$120 for the set

And Im using Windows XP Professional SP2, does that recognise up to 4GB or 3 and something?

Also, last question, When you buy kits of ram (like 2 x 1GB sticks), they are dual channel, or quad channel, if you were to buy 2 of the exact same sticks of ram, would that be dual channel?

BTW, the 4GB ram is 2 x 2GB 800Mhz, which are OCZ 2GB SO-DIMM 800Mhz DDR2 Laptop RAM

(Considering I just play an occasional bit of CSS and HL2DM, and use my laptop mainly for photoshop/rendering/movies/multitasking/presentations etc)

[MattZani]

Increasing Ram to even 4Gb may get you 1 or 2 FPS.

But the more the merrier, but try to keep it matched, besides, very few laptops have 4 slots, most have 2, so if you have 1Gb atm, it will 2 x 512Mb, so go with the most you can.

[phenomenal]

Increasing Ram to even 4Gb may get you 1 or 2 FPS.

But the more the merrier, but try to keep it matched, besides, very few laptops have 4 slots, most have 2, so if you have 1Gb atm, it will 2 x 512Mb, so go with the most you can.

1 or 2 FPS, that aint that much, hmm, Not much use of 4GB or ram then

Although it might help multi tasking

Also, my laptop came with 1GB DDR, but within a week I uninstalled vista, installed XP, and dual booted with ubuntu, and installed another 1GB stick (but it was a different one), and my laptop has 2 slots, now currently 2GB, 1 in each slot

But it supports 4GB, if i am able to get 2 x 2GB sticks

Also, whats faster, 2GB Matched or 3GB Unmatched?

[Onii]

2gb matched is faster than 4gb matched at same speeds (too small to notice tho) for single app work if you're using a 32 bit os (like the one you have right now). 2 gb matched is best setup for you, but it wont help your fps much in CSS. New graphics card is all that can save you now, but you have a laptop and I have no idea how that'd work.. If it is possible at all that is. 32bit os can use 3.25-3.75gb of memory max I believe, cause it has to set some aside for something or other (can't think of what it is off the top of my head). Good luck with whatever you end up with.