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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: jasonbar on May 01, 2009, 12:46:22 pm

Title: Laptop RAM Upgrade/Equivalent?
Post by: jasonbar on May 01, 2009, 12:46:22 pm
Howdy-

I'm doing lots of setup/tuning/artwork of my MAME cab by using my "daily driver" laptop.  It's getting a little long in the tooth & I'm looking for an upgrade, but I have a question for all the computer wizzes out there.

I have an HP Pavilion DV1000 series laptop.

It came with 2x 256MB RAM.

Long ago, I swapped 1 of them for a 1GB RAM, giving me 1.25GB.

I find my laptop cranking its hard drive incessantly, as it runs out of RAM & crunches on the page file a lot.

RAM's pretty cheap now, so I wish to get a 2nd 1GB module to bump me to 2 GB.

The 1GB module that I bought a long time ago says "Kahlon KHEW702 437832 DDR 333MHz Cl2.5".

That model or equivalents seem to run $43 or so at best:

http://kahlon.com/itemdetailpg.asp?itemid=997626

&

http://cgi.ebay.com/1GB-RAM-memory-for-Hewlett-Packard-HP-Pavilion-dv1000_W0QQitemZ170321194666QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item170321194666&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

&

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/zkarlo/items/NEW_HP_Pavilion_dv1000_Laptop_1GB_DDR_RAM_367774_001



In my searches, I found many items for half that price, but they say "DDR2" or have different (faster) MHz speeds, like 667MHz or 533MHz:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00192KUNU/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

&

https://www.kahlon.com/itemdetailpg.asp?itemid=1024536

&

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kahlon-Laptop-Memory-KACE53S6_W0QQitemZ250368563510QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item250368563510&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

&

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?edc=795016





From what little I can gather, these cheaper alternatives are newer (faster speeds & "DDR2" vs. "DDR"), but their pictures appear to show that they have the same size & shape & connector & key.  So, does anybody know if I can use one of these cheaper memory modules in my older laptop?



Thanks!

-Jason
Title: Re: Laptop RAM Upgrade/Equivalent?
Post by: BobA on May 01, 2009, 02:47:12 pm
You can use faster ddr it will just run at the max speed of your motherboard so don't pay extra unless you laptop can use the faster speed.  You cannot use DDR2 even thou it is cheaper.   I changed out the motherboard on my jukebox to one that takes DDR2 when I wanted more memory because it was cheaper then buying DDR memory.  Unfortunately you cannot do this on a laptop.
Title: Re: Laptop RAM Upgrade/Equivalent?
Post by: jasonbar on May 01, 2009, 03:05:12 pm
Thanks--looks as if I have 2 options:

1 - get a DDR (not DDR2) equivalent replacement, matching my 333MHz

2 - get a cheaper DDR2 @ a faster speed, but it won't work, so that's not a very good option.  :)


Guess that makes my decision pretty easy.

Thanks,
-Jason