ram clockspeed

i am looking at dell laptop, inspiron vs latitude (both have lots of promotion going on recently)

according to wiki, both e6400 and e6500 can support ram clockspeed at 800mhz, but i can't find similar information about the inspiron models.

what should I look if i am concerned about the ram clockspeed? anything to identify the system capability if i chose the inspiron 15 series?

thanks

 

I can tell you that the Inspiron 1545 can support up to 2 x 800MHz DDR2 SODIMMs. The ones they ship with have timings set to 6-6-6-6-18 (or they were in my case anyway).

Don't be confused by the fact that the chipset can utilise DDR3, as the board is setup for DDR2.

Of course, you might see variation from country to country. Can I suggest you check the following link:

Dell Manuals

Typically they will list what type of RAM can be installed in the setup guide - toward the end of the PDF.

Regards

 

The new Inspiron 15 uses 800MHz RAM, thanks to the PM45 chipset.

 

Yes, but just because the motherboard + chipset combination allows this, it does not mean that is what is supplied. For example, you could use 667MHz RAM in an Inspiron 15.

Technically, the PM45 chipset also supports DDR3 RAM, but that does not mean you will have that supplied.

As I said, to be safe, check the Dell manual, or better yet speak to someone at Dell to confirm what would be supplied with your chosen machine.

 

Good point. For the record, even though the chipset uses 800MHz memory, it's fully backwards compatible with 66MHz and 533MHz DDR2. DDR3 is physically incompatible with the motherboard.

 

thanks for all the advice!

now i am all into latitude series thanks to the 20% coupon from dell..(which also drives me away from lenovo)

but it still seems lots of choices to make. have been reading threads on this forum between e6400 and e4300, can't make my mind.