RAM Upgrade on my old Aspire

Well not that old (2 years in Jan 09), but old enough that it's age is starting to show, and after reading up/scanning my specs, my RAM (relative to everything) is pretty low (comes up as 766MB, despite having 2 512MB sticks [factory defaults]).

So I figured it is time for an RAM upgrade, but the process of picking what brand, how much, and what type (PC2-3200, 4300 etc..) is a lot harder than I though.

Here is what I currently have (in both slots, according to CPU-Z):
"DDR2, PC2-4300 (266 MHz), 512 MBytes, Hyundai Electronics"

And here are the key stats about my Acer Aspire 5050-5554:

Core Speed 1600.1 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 8.0 x 200.0 MHz
HT Link speed 800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 1600 MHz
Instruction sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64
L1 Data cache (per processor) 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache (per processor) 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache (per processor) 2 x 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Chipset & Memory
Northbridge ATI Xpress 200 (RS480) rev. 10
Southbridge ATI SB400 rev. 80
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Frequency 266.7 MHz (CPU/6)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 4.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 12 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 17 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T

System
System Manufacturer Acer, inc.
System Name Aspire 5050
System S/N LXAV30J021648020F42500
Mainboard Vendor Acer, Inc.
Mainboard Model Prespa M
BIOS Vendor Acer
BIOS Version v1.3309
BIOS Date 04/17/07


What I'm trying to figure out are what my limits in terms of RAM are, how high can I go(2GB, 4GB?) and what PC2 level I can go up to without going overboard, and what cas latency level can I go down to, i.e. not getting the benefits of 4GB PC2-6400 CAS4, when they would just be dropped down to 2GB PC2-2100 CAS5 or something. Or is upgrading RAM at all even worth it on this 2-year old dinosaur

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

PS: Also pin# comes up. Assume 200 is the standard (yet i see 204 pop-up on a few brands). Is # of pins something I should worry about?

 

Max Limit: 4GB DDR2 -- Need 64-bit OS to recognise whole 4GB.

You need 200-pin DDR2- SODIMM modules.

You could go for 2.5GB. Replace one 0.5GB module with a 2GB module.

You could go for a 2GB DDR2-667 PC2-5300 module.

You could try out PC2-6400, and if its not supported, it'll downclock to the highest supported frequency.

Also, to get a major boost in performance apart from a RAM upgrade, is to upgrade the HDD to a faster one.

 

Thanks for the crazy fast reply Andy.

So if I went with 4GB (2x2GB sticks) on my 32-bit OS, any idea where I would end up (I recall reading 3.5ish) or is it something too hard to guess?

Also is CAS latency all based on the sticks themselves, or does my motherboard also limit me to how low I can go?

 

With 4GB, Anywhere between 2.5-3.75GB will be addressed depending upon the BIOS, H/W, etc

CL has nothing to do with the motherboard.

BTW, I just looked up Crucial, and it states the chipset as something else. (I guess Xpress 1100 is the integrated 3D graphics, with up to 128 MB of shared system memory ?)

 

Yeah Xpress 1100 is the integrated 3D graphics card, with 128 shared memory.

What did it state the chipset as?

This really helped me out Andy, thanks so much. I guess I'll do some price hunting, and see if I have the budget to take the risks on going overboard on my detectable limit (on both GBs and PC2). Any brand you recommend, or are they all pretty interchangeable for RAM?

 

ATI Radeon EXPRESS 1100 http://crucial.com/store/ListParts.aspx?model=Aspire 5050

I would go for Crucial. They have the best after-sales support, and use good memory chips from Micron.

 

Last question (I hope), from what I've seen on crucial's site (seems to be the best I found for shipping to Canada) all the RAM that is PC2-4200 is CL4, and the PC2-5300 is CL5. Is it better to have the lower latency, or higher PC2 module? From what I've read, I couldn't really find a clear answer.

 

It will most probably use the same CL and speed no matter wich you choose. As you'll have PC2-4200-speed with the PC2-5300 making it downclocked to speed of a PC2-4200 stick using CL4 too.


But as an example 200Mhz CL4 will be as fast as a 266Mhz CL5 module.

 

Yeah I was wondering if it made any difference, since they were priced the same.

 

No it will not matter as your notebook will not use any higher speed on the ram as it uses now!

 

I seem to be leaning towards a 2GB and 1GB stick. If I do that, both sticks should have the same PC2#, CL#, and brand correct? (guess I lied about that last question thing )

 

Shouldn't matter either, if you choose another stick with higher spec it will downclock to the stick with the lowest specs. So you can choose any stick you want that's DDR2 SO-DIMM and uses atleast the frequency you have now (and higher).

 

On crucial's site it says you should install identical densities(i.e. 2x1GB, 2x2GB) if your have dual-channel memory, and I do, for optimal performance.

How big of a performance difference is this? Is doing a 2GB and 1GB a bad idea then if I want optimal performance?

 

Crucial is correct.
You can read more about it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167472 for example.


But even if it will use single channel you will still not loose any noticeable performance.

So i'd say promptly no, it's not a bad idea to run 2GB+1GB. If you can try, use 2x2GB sticks to see if it works, maybe it'll only recon 3GB but it'll be true dual channel (loosing ~1GB with 2 identical sticks won't do any harm anyways), if you really care about dual channel.

Though it doesnt matter (maybe a 2% performance decrease in tasks that is VERY memory-dependant and those tasks aren't common) some people state 10% performance gain with dual channel, though i haven't seen any tests confirming that it is that big of a difference.

And i've tested it out myself with my own PC's running single channel vs dual channel, getting only a 2% difference in tasks that is ram-dependant.