A Dell laptop user asks me about increasing RAM on his laptop. Check with the manufacturer first to see what maximum specs your laptop can handle. Some motherboards only handly up to 3G, which may cause you trouble when you add 4 or 8G.

Maxing out your RAM will almost always be the simplest and cheapest way to improve laptop performance. Most are underpowered, and it's cheap to beef them up.

The question comes from a Dell user, and Dell laptops are pretty simple. You can usually just remove the RAM cover and add, typically increasing the size of the chips helps since you almost never get more than 2. Sometimes there's one and the alternate one is deep under the keyboard - not as simple a task.

I've not reviewed the schematic on your laptop yet, but I'd bet it's not that difficult to get to. Just see if they have a schematic online or ask Dell technical support how to add extra RAM. The hardest part is finding the right RAM without paying the Dell premium. memoryx.com is a good place to guarantee the RAM fits, and if you just order from them you're only paying a 10-20% premium vs. a 200-300% markup from Dell.