Pretty sure I know this, but some memory questions.

[sharkapult]

This should be a no brainer, but...

I have a few laptops.
1.Core Duo T2300
currently it has a 512mb PC2 5300 stick in it.

2. Core Duo T2400
currently has 2gb of PC2 4200 in it (matching)

3. Core 2 Duo T7200
currently has 2gb of PC2 5300 in it (but non-matching)

My parents just gave me $45 for a new hdd for their laptop (along with the old one).

I had originally planned on putting it towards a 1gb stick of RAM for the laptop, but that would leave me with 1.5gb of RAM, but single channel since it wouldn't be matching sizes.

Or...a slightly better yet more-work-for-me option:
Take the 2gb of PC2 4200 out of #2, put it in #1 and buy 2gb of PC2 5300 for #3, and push #3's to #2, and sell my stick of 512mb for $25-ish.

I'd rather not do that as it's $100 out of pocket rather than $50, and the system shouldn't need more than 1gb. I'm not going to be running Vista on it, and no gaming, as it has integrated intel video.

I'm just stuck debating between 1.5gb of fast single channel RAM and 2gb of slow RAM that will end up costing me somewhere between twice as much, and just 50% more.