Upgrading RAM on laptop - finding the right one

Hi All,

A complete newbie question.

The specs for my Vaio VGN-S660P/B specify the kind of RAM that is already installed and the max.

I wanted to understand based on the info given to me, what kind of RAM can I upgrade to? Basically I don't understand whether PC2-4200 is just an older version of PC2-4300?

Memory
Type: DDR2
Installed: 1GB (PC2-4200 512MBx2)
Maximum: 2GB
Speed: 533MHz

With this info, should I only be looking to buy a PC2-4200 type RAM or can a PC-4300 also be used??

Also are there any particular advantages of using 2-1GB sticks vs a single 2Gb stick? And can a laptop have 1.5 gb ram?

Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forums!

Unless you are an extreme overclocker, your best bet is to use the PC2-4200.

Using a higher clocked ram will net you no gains. It will only downclock to your default front side bus speeds if it worked. Also, when you go to higher clock speeds on the ram, you also usually have higher latency on that ram.

If your laptop supports dual channel operation, and I think it does, you will have slightly better performance using two "matched" sticks of ram.

All of these modules are quality products and would be suitable for your notebook.

 

There is no difference between 4200 and 4300...some manufactures round up while others round down. I believe the number(4200/4300) is calculated by multiplying the clockspeed of the RAM by 8.
533 * 8 = 4264...rounding it would be 4200 but if you want to market it as something special, you would call it 4300.

You can read more about dual channel here but you will not notice any difference in the real world. With a single stick of ram, it will be less of a waste when you upgrade but I dont think you laptop can recognize anything over 2GB. 1.5GB is possible with a stick of 1GB and a stick of 512mb ram.

I recommend getting the cheapest stick of DDR2 sodimm(with a lifetime warranty). Any speed is fine since it will downclock and you will not notice any difference...amount of memory is more important than the speed of it(to an extent)

 

Yes, a laptop can have 1.5GB of RAM. The advantages of having dual memory slots is that you can stuff more memory per slot into your laptop. In your case, however, you seem to be capped at 2GB.

Nonetheless, you can buy a single stick of DDR2 2GB of notebook memory on the cheap these days, although how this might affect your performance since you won't be using paired sticks of memory I don't know.

 

@desidude420,

Your best option is to pull the two 512 sticks out and install two 1Gb sticks so you'll have the full 2GB. Also, a single 2GB stick cost's almost the same as 2x1GB dual channel ram.

As my link above indicated, it's less than $30 and will be a nice upgrade for you.

In the persuit of upgrading, it would only be a waste if you neglected to upgrade to 2GB.

 

Wow..you guys are great and quick! Thanks for the informative replies! It actually is starting to make some sense regarding the RAM modules

Based on your assessments, I am probably going to go with the 1GBx2 PC2-4200 RAM modules.

I'll check out the links Rob, thanks again!

I've never opened a laptop before, I got some online manuals, hopefully it goes smoothly.

If all goes well, my next project is to clean up my hard drive, it has a clutter-type noise, I think one of the plastic bands, covering a card slot broke and fell inside and now it keeps going clunk clunk depending on how I hold it