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    Will 8gb RAM work on Santa Rosa? Answer inside:

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by sunairport, Sep 8, 2008.

  1. sunairport

    sunairport Notebook Guru

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    A friend of mine got a new Centrino 2 laptop with 8gb RAM. Wanting to know whether it would work in my computer (Dell D830 T9500 2.6ghz Santa Rosa chipset, latest BIOS) I popped it in. I read a lot of different threads after scouring the net and some said yes and some said no. Well in my case it was no. I am almost positive SR will not support 8gb RAM even if hypothetically later on a new BIOS was released (BIOS support wouldn't help I'm pretty sure) because the 8gb of RAM (4gb x 2 sticks) were a high density type of RAM with only 8 chips total (4 chips each side) on each stick. The Santa Rose 2gb sticks already have 16 chips total (8 on each side). There's no way assuming that SR cannot support higher density that it would be able to support more than 4gb of RAM.

    Conclusion: Don't do it. Period. Unless you have someone willing to let you try their 8gbs of RAM to definitely figure out if your particular model of Santa Rosa notebook will support it. But I'm 99% sure it wont.

    Dont know if anyone has posted similar results yet since I haven't been on the site for a bit, but if not then here you go. Hope it helps.


    **There is something that is odd though. Dell offers its Precision M6300 with 8gb RAM if you look at its website. And that computer for sure is a Santa Rosa model. I cannot think of any explanation how this works unless there are lower density sticks of 4gb RAM that have 16 chips on each side.
     
    sunairport, Sep 8, 2008
    #1
  2. yoseph90

    yoseph90 Notebook Consultant

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    Santa Rosa doesn't support 8GBs. The M6300 might have been updated to MOntevina, so that might be the reason dell offers 8GB
     
    yoseph90, Sep 8, 2008
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  3. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    The 965 Chipset (Both the mobile and desktop variants) support 8GB RAM.
     
    Andy, Sep 8, 2008
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  4. f4ding

    f4ding Laptop Owner

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    f4ding, Sep 8, 2008
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  5. stewie

    stewie What the deuce?

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    yoseph90, that info is outdated and was released before the 4 GB SODIMM became available.

    Santa Rosa does support 8 GB, here is an example. It really depends on your mobo/BIOS, so far I've seen at least 3 different brands/models of laptops with SA chipset and 8 GB of RAM.
     
    stewie, Sep 8, 2008
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  6. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

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    naton, Sep 8, 2008
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  7. JM

    JM Mr. Misanthrope NBR Reviewer

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    The mobile variant of the 965 chipset does not support 8GB, according to Intel. 4GB is the max.

    Directly from Intel:

    [​IMG]

    Check page 12.
     
    JM, Sep 8, 2008
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  8. stewie

    stewie What the deuce?

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    stewie, Sep 8, 2008
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  9. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    That datasheet was last revised in June 2007, and even 2GB Modules were new to the market at that time. :p
     
    Andy, Sep 8, 2008
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  10. yoseph90

    yoseph90 Notebook Consultant

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    didn't know that, srry for the misinformation. Oh and I don't think 32-bit systems support 8GBs
     
    yoseph90, Sep 8, 2008
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  11. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Duhh..!! :p
     
    Andy, Sep 8, 2008
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  12. f4ding

    f4ding Laptop Owner

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    It's a non-issue, no matter what was said, some people have actually try it and it worked.
     
    f4ding, Sep 8, 2008
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