Matching memory?

Norman_Castle

Looking to increase my pc memory by buying two of these
1 GB PC4200 , DDR2 533 200 Pin Memory

These will be exchanged for another item at CEX. My local shop has two in stock but I doubt they are a matching pair. If the spec is as above, does this matter or will they work together without problem?.


Laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A100-521

InsideInsurance

As long as they match on the other criteria, EEC or non'EEC, buffered or nonbuffered etc then they should be ok together.

Personally I always used to buy from crucial http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=Satellite%20A100-521 and theirs is a little faster but even with the 10% cashback from Quidco its going to be twice the price

emptybox

In order to work in 'dual channel' mode they would need to be a matched pair.
So if you've already got a matched pair in the laptop, and were hoping to add another matched pair, then these may not do that.

But if you're just wanting to increase the amount of RAM in the machine, then they should work fine.
Even if dual channel is set as 'enabled' in the BIOS it would still work. Just not in dual channel mode.

I've never been sure if dual channel offers a real advantage anyway.

Cycrow

There is a small performance increase with dual channel memory, but its more noticeable in benchmarks than actual real world performance.

Memory doesn't have to be matched pairs to work in dual channel mode, but they do have to be of the same type (and same speed)
Matched pairs are just guaranteed to work in dual channel, but not actually required.

You shouldn't really mix ECC and non-ECC ram, but other than that, its not really a problem to mix memory modules

Norman_Castle

You shouldn't really mix ECC and non-ECC ram, but other than that, its not really a problem to mix memory modules

Will EEC or non EEC be written on the memory?.

Norman_Castle

The memory in post 1 is as recommended in the users manual. The crucial link offers this
1 GB PC5300 / DDR2 667 200 Pin Memory
Local CEX also has 2 of these. Others nearby have 4+. Are these any better or worse?.
Are they £1 cheaper for a reason?.

InsideInsurance

They are slightly faster, hence the PC5300, but are still the slowest/ oldest DDR2 ram modules that Crucial still makes.

Could be obscurity pushing the price up on the PC4200 or simply they havent reviewed their prices recently because theyre so old.

Cycrow

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Will EEC or non EEC be written on the memory?.

They should be yeah, but you can usually tell by the price.

ECC ram will cost considerable more.

They can run together, but you lose the error checking from the ECC ram, which makes it pointless paying the extra for it.

generally with ram, they will all run at the lowest spec. So if you have ram at 2 different speeds, they will both end up running at the slowest speed

emptybox

The PC5300 667MHz RAM would certainly work in the laptop, but it might well run it at 533MHz, if that was the highest setting in the BIOS.

I see that laptop can take a maximum of 2GB RAM and that it came with 512MB in the first place. So presumably you are thinking of replacing the existing RAM, as there are only 2 slots?

You could probably sell the old RAM on ebay, as long as you were careful to describe it fully and accurately. Or even exchange it at this CEX place?

Norman_Castle

CEX !!!! Waste of time.
Went today. Bought 2x1gb of 5300. Selected by them after handing them notes copied from Crucial. Returned home, pc wouldn't start with new memory. Returned to store with pc. After trial and error fitting, it was noticed the new memory was 444, not 667 as advised on my notes from Crucial. I was also advised to use 4200 memory which they didn't have despite it being in stock at their store according to their website. The correct 2x 4200/533 was in stock at another store. So I went there, the two sticks looked different but I was assured they were the same, bought it and fitted it in the car. It didn't work. Either together or individually. I then noticed one stick was 512mb. It was made by Samsung and identical make and spec to one I was replacing. As it was identical its safe to assume it was faulty and not incompatible. Both were returned.
So four visits to two CEX stores in one day. I'm sold memory of the wrong speed(?) then faulty memory, one of which is the wrong size!.

CEX have poor attention to detail. Use guesswork rather than knowledge, and sell incorrect and faulty goods.

NiftyDigits

Norman_Castle wrote: »

CEX !!!! Waste of time.
Went today. Bought 2x1gb of 5300. Selected by them after handing them notes copied from Crucial. Returned home, pc wouldn't start with new memory. Returned to store with pc. After trial and error fitting, it was noticed the new memory was 444, not 667 as advised on my notes from Crucial. I was also advised to use 4200 memory which they didn't have despite it being in stock at their store according to their website. The correct 2x 4200/533 was in stock at another store. So I went there, the two sticks looked different but I was assured they were the same, bought it and fitted it in the car. It didn't work. Either together or individually. I then noticed one stick was 512mb. It was made by Samsung and identical make and spec to one I was replacing. As it was identical its safe to assume it was faulty and not incompatible. Both were returned.
So four visits to two CEX stores in one day. I'm sold memory of the wrong speed(?) then faulty memory, one of which is the wrong size!.

CEX have poor attention to detail. Use guesswork rather than knowledge, and sell incorrect and faulty goods.

Look here....