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My wife got an Asus EEE PC 1015PEM laptop with Windows 7 Starter en 1gb of RAM. I took a look at it and its crazy slow.
So I want to replace the 1gb ram with something larger. Its 32bit so its no point going for more then 4gb but the tech specs says maximum is 2gb? Why is this?
Im thinking for upgrading it to Windows 7/8 Home Premium, so if there is a limit in the Starter version of Windows 7 then it does not matter. But is the 2gb maximum a hardwarelimit with this laptop?
As Ramhound has already said, the 2GB is a hardware limit of the N550 Atom processor: http://ark.intel.com/products/50154/Intel-Atom-Processor-N550-1M-Cache-1_50-GHz
The best you can do is get the fastest DDR3 which the system will support. I can't find anything specific about the fastest you can use in the Asus EEE PC 1015PEM but I did find a few laptops using DDR3 1066 ram.
Newegg's memory finder lists modules up to DDR3 1333 (http://www.newegg.com/MemoryFinder/#y8wBAbp0ad0ABD) for all the included Asus Eee PC 1015* notebook's (up to 1666 for a few of them) but there is no listing for the 1015PEM. Of course the price difference is minimal for trusted brands like Kingston and there is no downside to using RAM which is too fast for the system, it will simply run at a slower speed.
Of course, the real limit is the processor and the demands of Win7. Try disabling all Aero fetures and any other "eye-candy" if you haven't already. If you're adventurous you may see noticeable gains from using a lightweight linux distro.
Buy an SSD hard drive & 2GB Ram
Generally speaking, you can run Windows Experience Index, look at the lowest scores results and upgrade whatever is upgradable.
Specifically speaking, the Asus EEE PC 1015P EM buttole neck is the very slow hard drive.
I replaced the hard drive with an SSD hard drive. I still have 1GB ram (will upgrade to 2GB soon) and the difference in the computer speed is unbelievable!
It actually works and responds like a normal computer should.
I also upgraded my Windows to windows 7.
Intel specs on the N550 Atom are here: http://ark.intel.com/products/50154/Intel-Atom-Processor-N550-1M-Cache-1_50-GHz
Processor specs show maximum 2GB RAM:
Memory Specifications:
⠀Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type): 2GB
⠀Memory Types: DDR3
⠀Max # of Memory Channels: 1
The hardware's perfectly compatible with upto 4GB of RAM. There's no cause to worry if you're going to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium. The 2GB limit is only for the OS (Windows 7 Starter).
For details refer: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7
I hope this helps!
The specifications on this device is crystal clear. The reason the laptop is slow is because it only has a 1.5GHZ Dual Core Atom processor, which is slow, not much you can do to make it faster.
according to you net-book model from here, there is only one DDR3 SO-DIMM memory slot that Asus Pre-installed with 1x1gb module, you can change it to 1x2gb DDR3 module. I'm not sure about installing 4gb module on this model. because they make hard coded limitation on net-book main-board for this kind of upgrade. and because of that there is no need to upgrade to 64bit of windows.
