Is it better to have both sticks of RAM be of the same brand?

Right now i have 1.5gb of ram in my notebook and i'm looking to replace the 512mb with another 1gb stick of ram to get 2gb total.

Now i know that it will still work if i get a different brand, or if i get a 667mhz stick to go with my 533mhz, but would it be in any way better to have 2 matching ones?

 

You would want the speeds to match, otherwise they will clock down to the lowest speed that both are capable of.

I don't think it would be vital for them to be of the same brand though.

 

While the brand of memory doesn't need to match, the memory timings certainly do... at least if you want to run them in dual channel configuration. You can use CPU-Z to determine the memory timings of your currently installed RAM.

And no, adding a stick of 667MHz RAM won't be any better than 533MHz.

 

Exactly. No point in pairing memory of different speeds - you just get the lower speed.

 

I've personally not been able to measure any benefit with RAM running in dual channel. However, perhaps CPU-Z doesn't detect dual channel RAM properly: It reports dual channel on both my notebooks. The X60 plus has 2 x 1GB, but of different make and speed, while the Q35 has 256MB on board and 1GB in a slot.

My stick of Corsair 667 RAM has timings of 5-5-5-15-20 at 333/667MHz and 4-4-4-12-16 at 267/533MHz. Those numbers are clock cycles and are much the same values when measured in fractions of seconds.

John

 

So to be clear, my current 1GB stick is 533mhz at 4-4-4-12-16, as long as the other is also a 1GB stick with 4-4-4-12-16 timing then dual channel will work regardless of any other factor right?

 

I can only answer maybe, but logically yes. All I can say is that when I tested the speed of the original RAM in my NP-X60plus (two identical modules) plus various other combinations of RAM, the memory bandwidth benchmark in http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ didn't give significant differences. Maybe that is due to the Intel mobile chipset or the Samsung motherboard. When I ran general benchmarks such as PCmark05, more RAM always gave better overall results.

John

 

Right, as long as the timing is matched they should run dual channel.

 

You really need to be careful mixing and matching memory. I would highly suggest that you download MemTest86 to ensure that you don't end up with memory related issues. It can be found here. http://www.memtest86.com/

 

i have 2 rams installed with different brand. so brand doesn't really matter in my experience. however, some people reported problems when mixing up rams with different brand and also mixing ram with different speed and cl... some lappy just don't want mix rams.. so i suggest, to be safe and free of any conflicts, just buy ram with the same specs as your installed ram..