Soldered memory

Would anyone know which Asus notebooks have soldered memory? I know the W7J does, but I've heard there are other models as well. Also, maybe you can tell me what the purpose of soldered memory is, as it seems to be a great pain in the butt. If your soldered RAM becomes corrupt (unlikely but possible) you basically gotta toss the computer. And of course the inherent upgrading limitations. Why would manufacturers choose this configuration?

 

the w7j, z35f, w5f do too

 

i havent seen pics of the soldered memory, but cant you just De-solder them?

 

Only the compact models have them. The reason they do it is it saves a couple milimeters in space. as for limited upgrade. by the time 1.5 gigs isnt enough your notebook will be obsolete anyways.

 

Ditto..... on some of the smallest systems (W7j, Z35f, W5f... and those are just the newest models), but basically 13" or smaller has some on board and one open dimm. The reasoning is space. Now, one open dimm is better than none.... and soldered member is better than having none and an open dimm you NEED to fill. It's not the best solution, but when you look at it that way, it's the way Asus is intending it. Soldered ram takes up about 1/3 of the height and close 2/3 of the foot print........ in a small system where there's already no room, every little bit counts. I wouldn't worry about the ram chip failing that's on board, because it's now at as much risk as your ethernet chip or sound chip. If it's under warranty, you don't need to worry about because Asus will take care of it and most likely resolder new ram. However, if it's out of warranty, if that stops working, it's not going to affect the open dimm and the ram on board could stop working and your computer would still be functional.

 

thats the way old laptop used to come as well (well my old Compaq Armada 3500) it had 64mb onboard and one expansion slot, maxing out at 198mb and guess what my gf is still using it as a work, email and internet machine... oh how times change..... well the onboard ram finally failed (after 5 years of continual use) and by that stage I just purchased an old Armada motherboard + chassis for 15 USD on ebay, worked a charm! and it is still running sweet today, although it wont run XP due to only having 198mb RAM but its runing Win2k fine, more stable than 98 but not as resource hungry as XP

 

Thanks for your replies on a topic where there isn't a lot of information public.

 

I find it weird that ASUS failed to find space to implement 2 proper SoDIMM slots in their W7J series. I mean, Sony managed it with the SZ series, and its both thinner and lighter with the same specifications! Dell also has no problems with implementing 2 SoDIMM slots in theirs, and before you say the Dell is thicker, the thickness are:
ASUS W7J - 1.16"-1.48"
Dell XPS M1210 - 1.20"
Sony SZ (regular) - 0.99"-1.44"
I think in the year 2006, having soldered memory on-board just doesn't make any sense and its not excusable. Plus with memory prices so volatile these days, it just gives you all sorts of pricing/inventory headaches.

 

I'm still impressed Apple could stuff a MR X1600 in a 1" thick case although I guess the 15.4" design allows them a bit of width to compensate.

In defence of soldered memory it is slightly more power efficient and faster because of better quality, direct connections rather than through some slot.

 

Also makes running dual channel potentiall problematic too, doesn't it?

 

Well, this is a situation where Intel Flex Memory Technology or whatever they call it comes in. It allows dual channel operation with unmatched sizes. Not the best, but still better than nothing. The 667MHz FSB can't benefit from full dual channel operation anyways.

 

Dual channel will run on unmatched sizes, at least on the newest systems..... but dual channel in this day and age is really overstated to begin with... it's not going to change your life.. heck, I'll bet you won't even notice the benefits - and that's if you're doing something that is actually making use of it.

The best way to look at this is that it's better to have that soldered memory there than not to have it at all. Because the bottom line is that it's either there or you simply have one slot... the designs make it impossible to fit another. The other design problem is actually in the access covers... In certain situations access covers can't be fit because on the smaller units which already may have large access panels, simply can't structurally support any more holes......

Now, off topic, but I'm not impressed that there's an x1600 in those apples..... if you actually measure them in real life, the newest 15.4" is really not smaller than the W1 and that is using an x1600.... it's just a matter of "marketing sizes" verses "real measurements". Now to fit the x1600 on a laptop of the system thickness, but in the size of a 14" system, much more difficult..... but oh.. Asus did it with the W3?!

 

Yeah my mate had a MB Pro, same spec (CPU and GPU) to be honest it was noticably thinner, but the trade off was...... it got seroiusly hot, and I mean very hot!

 

Yeah, but one thing I know that looks odd with that picture is the fact the the feet on the Apple are non esistant.... the W3 is held up quite a bit.... but even still, the W3 is thicker than the W1 was... and for 15.4", the Asus and Apple's can be almost identical... and given it's 14", the W3 has needed some more room vertically than the Apple. For one, the modular bay meant it needed a thicker drive than I believe is in the Apple, and that's one big reason for having a slightly thicker platform. On the other side, I don't know, but I'd still bet the apple's graphics card is soldered to the motherboard... the W3's is removable and that space equals more thickness.

 

Yeah and I know what you mean it has small rubber feet but they are just 1-2mm high, I would rather have.... a system that is a bit thicker and breathes well, Asus all the way! you have to work with a MBP to realise how hot they are, after a days light work his mbp palmrest was the same temp as right under my W3J's CPU, I could not bare working with a system that had thermal problems like that, he cant even use it on his lap and he said when he pushes it hard it gets even hotter