1GB Or 2GB in a Netbook - Is There a Difference?

First of all you need to decide if you can spend twenty dollars on something that may or may not boost your netbook's performance. There are programs that will work faster but then there are those that are not affected by more system memory. If you read this article you should be able to decide if you need more than the default amount in netbooks.

Why 2GB, can't you just slap in a 2GB module and forget the whole thing? Unfortunately you can't, for multiple reasons. 2GB SO-Dimm Modules are more expensive. Not that it should matter if you absolutely need the extra memory, but in a computer that's worth $300 new it doesn't make much sense to spend an extra $60 on something that would not make things go faster.

Not only that, but Intel's 945g chipset often used by netbook manufacturers only supports up to 2GB memory. The processor paired with this chipset is often an N270 or N280 atom, both 32 bit processors. They physically cannot run software that can use more than 4GB memory, and the next logical step would be to support 4GB. So there are software limitations in place, too.

Unfortunately Intel doesn't seem to be keen on lifting this limitation as their most recent Atom N450 processor that has a memory controller installed accepts up to 2GB as well.

Where does 2GB make much difference? You would certainly notice that things go more smoothly while you do many things simultaneously. When working with only one or two applications at once you don't often reach 1GB memory use that would justify having more, and even if you do, Windows takes good care of the problem with virtual memory.

Using the hard drive to store important data instead of the RAM slows processes down a little, but unless you often change between applications that have a total memory requirement more than 1GB, you won't notice a things. In games and scientific applications you won't notice much of a difference either, mainly because the bottleneck of the system is not in the amount of available memory, but the speed of data processing, which is the processor's department.

There are some people who take a different approach in the question. They install the extra memory anyway, because one 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM stick used in netbooks these days costs about $20. The way of their thinking follows the logic that they can buy it so why shouldn't they?

The approach you take is entirely up to you, but given that to reach the maximum amount you have to pay less than ten percent of the total price of the computer it doesn't make much sense to debate over the question much. If you run many applications simultaneously buy the extra stick, if you don't I wouldn't bother.