Compatibility question regarding RAM

[Oggie7797]

Let me start with im on a budget. I need the mobility of a laptop so thats why im not bothering with a desktop and i dont have the money to buy an $800 asus so my best bet for the time being is to add some RAM into my old Inspiron 1720. According to Crucial the max RAM is 4gb

http/www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Dell/inspiron-1720

On amazon i found this saying it is also compatible but for a cheaper price, is this really compatible? Sorry guys im new to modding computers im more into Androids.

http/www.amazon.com/Memory-Upgrade-Dell-Inspiron-Notebook/dp/B0019W1LNS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401664928&sr=8-2&keywords=4gb+ram+inspiron+1720

Also for a bit more money i found a kit of 8gb claiming compatibility so whats the deal with that?

http/www.amazon.com/Compatible-Dell-Inspiron-17-Notebook/dp/B00AAN2HEE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1401664928&sr=8-4&keywords=4gb+ram+inspiron+1720

The 4gb of RAM will be enough honestly because right now i only have 2gb. I want to start building ROMs for my new Android and right now my laptop is just too slow for that. My laptop has Vista 32bit on it and something i want to know is that if i make it 4gb RAM would my 32bit Vista stop working properly? Im going to run Ubuntu14.x 64bit on my VM after i upgrade my RAM but my vista im worried about because i honestly dont know. Any help would be appreciated and if you need me to clarify some let me know! Sorry for dragging this on but hey just trying to be informative i guess

 

[SchizTech]

The Vista 32 will run but only see up to 3.25 GB of RAM (the last bit of RAM won't be usable due to 32 bit limitation). There would be no point to 8GB if it were compatible.

 

[Oggie7797]

Thanks, but my main need for the RAM would be to run Ubuntu 14.x in my VM. So would it not even recognize me having 4gb of usable RAM if i used a VM then?

 

[SchizTech]

no

 

[Oggie7797]

Lovely. Lol okay, so if i was to just straight up install Ubuntu 64bit after putting in 4gb RAM what all would i lose? I understand it would replace my OS but what else would get deleted?

 

[SchizTech]

Installing Ubuntu would delete everything on the drive - it would have to be reformatted in Ubuntu's filesystem since it's a different filesystem than Windows uses.

 

[Oggie7797]

including pictures music etc then..?

 

[SchizTech]

Yep

 

[Oggie7797]

Well, if i was to put in 4gb of RAM then my vista 32bit would just read 3.25gb but still work fine. So if i was to just dual boot into Ubuntu 14.x 64bit i could use all 4gb of my RAM and be able to use Ubuntu without losing my things. Correct?

 

[SchizTech]

Yes, you can partition the drive, dual boot and Ubuntu will see all the RAM

 

[SchizTech]

Dual boot would be better from a performance standpoint anyway since Ubuntu wouldn't be sharing resources with the Windows host system and would have direct access to the hardware

 

[Oggie7797]

Sorry for my noobness lol but how would i partition the drive? I have dual booted into a bootable CD before to sbf my android but thats about it. All i have ever really done other than that is just run Ubuntu 14.x 32bit on a VM which was extremely slow..

 

[SchizTech]

Sorry for my noobness lol but how would i partition the drive? I have dual booted into a bootable CD before to sbf my android but thats about it. All i have ever really done other than that is just run Ubuntu 14.x 32bit on a VM which was extremely slow..[/quotems]

When you boot into the Ubuntu installer there should be several options, including "use entire disk" (not what you want) and "install alongside Windows." The second option will shrink the Windows partition and create a new partition where Ubuntu will be installed.

 

[Oggie7797]

Oh okay thanks thats good to know! On my VM it said that no OS was on my computer (obviously since it was a VM ) so it didnt give me that option all it had was to try or to install it.