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    Centrino 2 Notebook w/ DDR2 RAM. Can use DDR3 RAM??

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by MobileGamer13, Nov 16, 2008.

  1. MobileGamer13

    MobileGamer13 Notebook Geek

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    Just bought a semi-gaming/MS Office notebook for work and play. Good portability and better than average for gaming.

    Intel Centrino 2
    4GB DDR2 RAM @ 800mhz
    ATI HD 3670

    My question is... I have an Intel Centrino 2 Duo T9400 CPU whichs supports DDR3 RAM. It came with DDR2 @ 800mhz. Am I able to pop in DDR3 sticks or will it not read due to the motherboard? Thanks.
     
    MobileGamer13, Nov 16, 2008
    #1
  2. emike09

    emike09 Overclocking Champion

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    Ive wondered this too. Anybody have any ideas? Thread might have better been suited in the hardware section.
     
    emike09, Nov 16, 2008
    #2
  3. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    No. DDR3 (204pin) and DDR2 (200pin) slots & modules are physically different.

    A DDR3 module will not fit in a DDR2 slot and vice versa.
     
    Andy, Nov 16, 2008
    #3
  4. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    What notebook is it? Does it have DDR3-slots too?
     
    Michel.K, Nov 16, 2008
    #4
  5. Hahutzy

    Hahutzy Notebook Deity

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    Imagine DDR2 as video casettes, and DDR3 as DVDs.
     
    Hahutzy, Nov 16, 2008
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  6. Cheffy

    Cheffy Notebook Evangelist

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    It is extremely unlikely any notebook motherboard contains both ddr2 and ddr3 slots, so for all intents and purposes, no.
     
    Cheffy, Nov 16, 2008
    #6
  7. SpeedyMods

    SpeedyMods Notebook Deity

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    No, but there is almost no performance advantage to using DDR3.

    Greg
     
    SpeedyMods, Nov 16, 2008
    #7
  8. Michel.K

    Michel.K 167WAISIQ

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    Yeah, no use to upgrade to DDR3 anyways even if it did support it.
    As intelsystems doesnt take advantage of the memory bandwidth like AMD-systems would or the new Core i7. So the performance gain would be negligible anyways! Just waste of money!
     
    Michel.K, Nov 16, 2008
    #8
  9. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Maybe we should have a sticky with most commonly asked questions...
     
    sgogeta4, Nov 16, 2008
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  10. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    I doubt it has both DDR2 and DDR3 slots...

    Dont worry about it anyway, there is very little performance increase among the two.
     
    ahl395, Nov 16, 2008
    #10
  11. dondadah88

    dondadah88 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I don't think that it uses the same slots. and if it did i think that more people would of done so already.
     
    dondadah88, Nov 16, 2008
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  12. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    We definitely need a sticky. DDR3 and DDR2 are completely different, just like different CPU sockets. You cannot put a DDR3 SODIMM into a DDR2 SODIMM slot.
     
    sgogeta4, Nov 16, 2008
    #12
  13. Slaughterhouse

    Slaughterhouse Knock 'em out!

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    I hear DDR3 doesn't really provide any significant performance increase so you should be fine.
     
    Slaughterhouse, Nov 17, 2008
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  14. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    It doesn't provide any real peformance or power saving features at the moment. Like DDR to DDR2, the only benefit isn't really being utilized yet (higher bus rate).
     
    sgogeta4, Nov 17, 2008
    #14
  15. MobileGamer13

    MobileGamer13 Notebook Geek

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    Well I know just 4GB alone, regaurdless its DDR/2/3, is overkill for my MS Office apps. But as far as gaming goes which games benefit from it?

    I currently play COD4, WoW, TF2. Looking to play COD:5WaW, Bioshock, and anyone that can recommend games that I can run and above average settings. Just remember my laptop is more for portability than gaming. Thanks.
     
    MobileGamer13, Nov 17, 2008
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  16. tianxia

    tianxia kitty!!!

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    non. games will run the same if you have 2 or more gigs of ram. certain games with very large textures ,may stutter due to constantly loading from pagefile, but you need to have ridiculusly large games for that to happen, like crysis on vhigh with 1gb ram.
     
    tianxia, Nov 17, 2008
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  17. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

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    I agree. ;)

    +10 rep
     
    ahl395, Nov 17, 2008
    #17