Expanding Laptop Ram

[Asiacat]

Can anyone give me a rough cost of upgrading a laptop ram from 512 to 1024 meg.

[phazey]

I recently bought 2 x 1GB DDR2 sticks (Kingston) for my laptop @ $50 per piece. May be cheaper in Thailand.

[bangbuathong]

KINGTON SO-DIMM DDR II 1 GB PC5300 (667MHz) @ 1620 Baht on http://www.hwhinter.com/

[Kf6vci]

http://www.crucial.com has software which checks your system. Depending on the model and age, it might be one of several types, so you better check this first! And then, I would highly recommend adding 1 GB.

[Neocon]

Can anyone give me a rough cost of upgrading a laptop ram from 512 to 1024 meg.

I'm not an IT expert, but I recently became smarter about laptop RAM, having just upgraded 3 laptops.

1. Is your laptop RAM DDR I or DDR II? The 200-pin SODIMM DDR I and DDR II formats are not compatible. Ensure you purchase the correct format for your laptop model.

1GB DDR I PC2700/3200 (Kingston) is more expensive = 3,260 Baht. As previously posted, 1,620 Baht for 1GB DDR II PC5300 (667MHz) is about right.

2. Does your laptop have a second RAM slot, or is it a single slot? If you have a second slot then you can save some money by only having to add 512MB. If it has a single slot then you have to do a 1GB upgrade.

Vendors in Bangkok's Pantip Plaza and Fortune Town have the prices hanging over their counters--be sure you read the prices for laptops, not desktops. Generally speaking, you'll notice that prices for the same manufacturer (e.g. Kingston) are the same. At Pantip Plaza last week I noticed a few vendors had slightly higher prices (100 Baht higher) than most of their competition.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Boksida]

Can anyone give me a rough cost of upgrading a laptop ram from 512 to 1024 meg.

Just had it done today for 690 baht

[begsaresponse]

Can anyone give me a rough cost of upgrading a laptop ram from 512 to 1024 meg.

Just had it done today for 690 baht

Can you tell us where you had it done?

[crockett]

Best place -if you are in Bangkok- is here: http://www.memorytoday.com/

Fortune Town 3rd Floor, very competent guy.

[lazeeboy]

Best place -if you are in Bangkok- is here: http://www.memorytoday.com/

Fortune Town 3rd Floor, very competent guy.

it centre top floor ddr2 2x 1gb 2750 b for acer aspire 4720 ,best deal i could find ,make kingston ..

[cali]

If you are not sure what kind of RAM you need, it has never been easier to find out. In the below link try the memory configurator in the bottom left. It will dial you in to exactly what you need as they seem to have built a database of every single PC made.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category.aspx?...amp;name=Memory

For techies: if you want to get fancy with little risk, find out what kind of motherboard you have and you could very well discover it also accepts faster types of memory compared to what it came stock with which means your memory upgrade could yield even better performance.

[Boksida]

Can anyone give me a rough cost of upgrading a laptop ram from 512 to 1024 meg.

Just had it done today for 690 baht

Can you tell us where you had it done?

Lampang

[Guest Reimar]

Even if some of honorable members will starting again to tell that I should not "complicate" a simple task I'll post MY point of view and meaning again!

First at all: NOT mix memory if you keen about speed!

To tell it simple, there a lot difference in meories. The todays most used memory for Laptops are DDR and DDR2 Memory, measuring by DDR memory from 200 MHz til 400 MHz and by DDR 2 Memory from 533 MHz til 800 MHz.

By both DDR and DDR 2 Memory there is the measuring CL (CAS Latency) and they higher the number the slower the speed! CL 2.5 is the fastest available while CL 6 the slowest one!

If you mix different memories with different speed (MHz and/or CL) the system will slows down and that more than just to the slowest available memory speed in the system.

We had done some testing about that and in the same Laptop (Compaq Presario 2598) the speed while rendering a 3D pic was:

1. DDR 400 2 GB CL 2.5 = 17 min

2. DDR 400 1 GB CL 2.5 and 1 GB CL 4 = 21 min

Test with DDR 2 Memory in Acer Aspire 5593, same 3D pic:

1. DDR 2 667 2 GB CL3 = 15 min

2. DDR 2 667 1 GB CL 3 and 1 GB CL 5 = 22 min

3. DDR 2 533 2 GB CL 3 = 19 min

4. DDR 2 533 1 GB CL 3 and 1 GB CL 5 = 21 min

The time diffrence between DDR and DDR 2 is coming from an not so well known fact: DDR Memories having (just a simple) Error Correction because the Module having a low profile ECC Chip (ECC= Error Correction Chip) which DDR 2 memory do not have. That's also the point why DDR 2 Memories are a lot cheaper than DDR Memories. This applies for the MB's as well because the "new" MB's do not need a Memory Controller with Error Correction! Is as simple as that.

And to all of you who want to complain about this post again as in the past: Do a googling to first and get the knowledge you need for an fundamental critic.

And this is a promise from me: I will only answer fundamental critics in this point.

Cheers!

[Pomthai]

@reimar, do you know if I need to change BIOS setting on new desktop to get 667 speed out of my new ram? They are 667 modules, but showing 333mhz. The FSB shows at 800mhz also and this motherboards rate for 1066, I have core 2 duo 1.8 E4300 which supports these FSB speeds. Is this a multiplier issue or a ratio (example 1:1 5:3) ram/bus? You seem pretty knowledgeable about ram hopefully you can shed some light for me. Cheers. BTW Mother board is ASUS P5VD2-VM ram is 2X 1GB Kingston DDR2 667.

[Guest Reimar]

@reimar, do you know if I need to change BIOS setting on new desktop to get 667 speed out of my new ram? They are 667 modules, but showing 333mhz. The FSB shows at 800mhz also and this motherboards rate for 1066, I have core 2 duo 1.8 E4300 which supports these FSB speeds. Is this a multiplier issue or a ratio (example 1:1 5:3) ram/bus? You seem pretty knowledgeable about ram hopefully you can shed some light for me. Cheers. BTW Mother board is ASUS P5VD2-VM ram is 2X 1GB Kingston DDR2 667.

Asus MB's are sensitive for memories! You need to check the Kingston Memory you use are supported for that MB Model! There also some MB's which shows just the "real" speed of the memory and CPU without the multiplier. The P4GD1 (Asus) for example shows Memory 200 MHz but it's real 400 MHz if the MB has an AMI Bios, different from the Award Bios!

I use on MSI Boards Dual Channel memory which I can't use on Asus Boards if I use 2 Set. At the same moment I insert the 4. Memory Bank the system want start! From Asus not any answer about WHY!

For me it's some Bugs in Asus Boards and I stopped use them around 2 years ago. The last I bought was tha P4GD1 and that was changed 3 time already because of problems with memory!

But again, check the compatibility of ypour memory for that MB!

For the FSB (Front Side Bus) you should use a System Info Software to find out what is running on which speed!

I'll place the 3 in 1 Software from Auslogics on the Download Section within the next hour. This Software has a sysinfotool as well. Try it.

[Pomthai]

Thanks for the quick reply, I've not had any compatibility probs, I'll try your suggested software when you upload it.

The book on the MB says it will support the RAM I bought, and it does seem stable at the moment (no issues as yet tough wood) BTW this board only has two slots.

I can also speed up the system by increasing the FSB before the multiplier (9) it has a ranger of 200 to 232 numericly adjustable in the BIOS very easy, but I'd prefer not to overclock the CPU just to get ram and FSB up to speed.

[Guest Reimar]

Thanks for the quick reply, I've not had any compatibility probs, I'll try your suggested software when you upload it.

The book on the MB says it will support the RAM I bought, and it does seem stable at the moment (no issues as yet tough wood) BTW this board only has two slots.

I can also speed up the system by increasing the FSB before the multiplier (9) it has a ranger of 200 to 232 numericly adjustable in the BIOS very easy, but I'd prefer not to overclock the CPU just to get ram and FSB up to speed.

OK, the software is uploaded already and you can download.ts Auslogics 3 in 1 (Disk-Defrag, Registry-Defrag and System-Information).

Who is the supplier of the CPU? If there is an Warranty Sticker from LIN somewhere than you may have an remarked CPU! LIN or LIN-Con as the name of that company, deals with remarked CPU's from Intel and AMD!

[Pomthai]

No seperate supplier, this was a thai special pre-built machine, which I intend to upgrade. CPU-Z shows it as genuine Intel as does SIW. I've yet to take off the heat sink and have a look for stickers. One other reason I went for this board its that I also have an older P4 3.4gig desktop CPU from a 17inch toshiba laptop (yes they did make one huge on with the desktop CPU in it). Well the motherboards on board graphics is fried so it only runs VGASAVE mode. 26,000 baht for new motherboard....29,000 for new desktop with 22" LCD complete, I went for the latter.