great/cheap v2000z, update RAM

I got this v2000z with a free HP Deskjet Printer for only$654(tax and shipment included) after discount and rebate from HP.com

Turion(TM) 64 ML-32 (1.8GHz/512KB L2 Cache)
14.0 WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x768)
ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M
256MB DDR SDRAM (1x256MB)
40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
Drive 8X DVD Drive
54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/125HSM
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


It's great for such a low price. The only thing I will complain about is its 256MB 2700 RAM. I want to combine it with a 512 PC2700 RAM. I checked the www.chiefvalue.com,

pqi POWER Series 512MB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Notebook Memory Model MD3212UOE R - $40
Rosewill, Patriot, viking, G.skill, Transcend, OCZ $40-45,
A-DATA, Corsair $45-50,
kingston, patiot extreme above $50-60

I don't find reason not to choose pqi, for budget consideration, there anyone tried pqi on v2000z?

The balanced choice is OCZ and corsair, I knew some guys in this forum tried these two brands and find no problem.

Will Rosewill, patriot, viking and G.skill working on v2000z? Someone tried?

:hp: :budget:

 

By the way, somebody said that 2X256MB and 2X512MB are good choice for updating, but 256MB + 512MB combination is not good. Can somebody comfirm/explain this?

 

any brand should work, but if i were you, i'd err on the side of caution and get a known brand such as ocz or corsair. as for mix matching memory, i'd choose 256 + 512 over 2 x 256 any day.

 

Check your BIOS version first. The memory upgrade on this notebook is very much dependent on the BIOS. There are known issues with the newest one, I think F.21 and with older than F.11
OCZ should be fine, Corsair too. Check the HP forum here for greater details on price and results

 

Well, the problem with mostly notebooks today is that they have only 1 channel mem controller, this mean that to archive maximum performance is better to use only 1 mem slot. In your case if You want max performance and considering that windows sweat spot is 1GB, I recommend 1 stick of 1GB mem even if it's PC2700.

The problem related to the 256Mb + 512MB choice is more related to latency. As said before, since the controller has only 1 channel and since the modules installed are 2, the controller must switch latency timing constantly, this slows down performance! Remember that the mem controller is inside the CPU, so think about how stressful is to change latency and dealing with 2 different modules type on the fly at the same time!

If You want max performance go 1GB module. If You don't care much go 2X512MB.

2 words on the chips, it seems that modules made with infineon chips are able to archive greater bandwidth at the same memory clock. I beleive Corsair and Mushkin produce sodimm with the Infineon chip.

 

Yah, that make sense!

If v2000z have 2 channel mem controllers (how to check it out?), if the 256 module and 512 module came from the same vendor, is there still latency problem?

 

The Turion is a Socket 754 processor, so they do not support dual channel memory. Only socket 939 Athlon64's support dual channel memory. Using unequal memory sticks should not create any latency issues. I have been using a 1GB(Crucial) stick paired with a 256MB(Infenion) module for months without any problems.

Notebook RAM usually have similar latencies, so there is nothing too much to worry about.

 

@ quickfire

What miner is sayinfg is true. The difference in performance is minimal, so use 1 stick only if You want to archive maximum performance.

It's a real issue on dual channel system when mem don't match!