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    SO-DIMM DDR3 1.5V in LDDR3 laptop

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by TXOC, Apr 15, 2016.

  1. TXOC

    TXOC Newbie

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    I have a HP G2 255 Laptop and I want to upgrade the ram.
    In its stock configuration from factory, it has 1.35v DDR3L (4GB) ram, however the ram I want to upgrade to is DDR3 1.5V (8GB).
    When i go onto my laptop specifications PDF on HP's website ( https://shop.evry.com/pdf/DE818BFF-1CA9-4514-969C-3583DCB12007.pdf), it only states that it supports DDR3L. It says nothing about DDR3.

    The APU in my laptop is an AMD A4-5000 which has the memory controller integrated into the APU die. AMD says that the AMD A4-5000 does support DDR3 ram, so why doesn't the hp website say anything about DDR3? Could it be because the voltage controller for DRAM is not able to deliver voltages above 1.35V, or maybe the bios is locked so that it wont POST with DDR3 on this laptop?

    Has anyone got any experience with using DDR3 modules in a motherboard that officially only supports DDR3L?

    Edit: mods, please change "LDDR3" in the topic title to "DDR3L"
     
  2. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    Starlight5 and tilleroftheearth like this.
  3. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    What the APU supports and what the manufacturer of the motherboard chipset and BIOS enables is not one and the same.

    Stick to what is supported for your notebook to get the use you expect from it (in all aspects of performance (including battery life and temps, as kosti also suggests) and longevity too).
     
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  4. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    I second that.. it might work but it will be unstable and that will not be worth it in the long run!
     
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  5. Starlight5

    Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?

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    @TXOC if you decide to try it, test stability with Prime95.I do not encourage that, though.
     
  6. Dufus

    Dufus .

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    This is the case for a lot hardware. A fixed 1.35V is supplied from the mainboard without option for 1.5V. I don't know about your AMD but for instance with Intel Haswell quads I would say the mobile chips are from the same wafers as the desktop and the desktop can use 1.5V. I've had my i7-4700MQ and i7-4600M running DDR3L at 1.5V and 2800MHz with no problem. Running only 1.35V will result in just 2400MHz.
     
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  7. TomJGX

    TomJGX I HATE BGA!

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    There is also the question of the stability of the memory controller on the chip... I've found that it can be finky with the type of RAM used at least in my experience.. At least you have 2 good ones :p
     
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  8. Dufus

    Dufus .

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    Not so good really, they are single rank only.