The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    question about different ram brands in my laptop

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by fruithead, Dec 9, 2008.

  1. fruithead

    fruithead Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    22
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    i got a new laptop from hp with 4 gb of ram, for whatever reason they sent me the laptop with 2 installed and they sent a 2gb stick separately.

    the laptop is an 8710p business model from HP

    the 2gb stick in my laptop now is: (taken from cpu-z)

    DIMM #1

    General
    Memory type DDR2
    Module format SO-DIMM
    Manufacturer (ID) Samsung (CE00000000000000)
    Size 2048 MBytes
    Max bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
    Part number M4 70T5663CZ3-CE6
    Serial number 271B263F
    Manufacturing date Week 18/Year 08

    it's running at 333 mhz, and the timings are 5-5-5-15

    The second one (the one HP sent me) is:

    Hynix HYMP125S64CP8-y5, it is also a pc2-5300 (it says pc2-5300s on it, i have no idea what the "s" is for) stick of 2 gb ram, and both have the same voltage (1.8) and the same nominal bandwidth (64) and the same timings (5-5-5-15)

    THE QUESTION:

    i have seen a lot of "hock" on various forums about different ram brands where many people seem to indicate that there is some mysterious reason that ram brands should be the same EVEN IF all the specs are the same on both chips. i would like to know

    A) if this is true
    B) WHY?

    i figured this has gotta be the best place to ask, if someone out there knows this forum is definitely on the list of places he would be.

    P.S. not to offend anyone, (and i mean that) but if you are only guessing please don't post, i have seen more than enough posts where people post up info they are uncertain of but think might be true.

    thank you all!

    EDIT: (for instance,
    HTML:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=35105
    reply #4 states the following:

    "As long as the RAM is identical to one another and the motherboard supports dual channeling, you should be fine. Not sure if this possible for you, but I also read that buying two pieces of RAM (both modules) at the same time, as to get them from the same batch made, also helps the scenerio. Very little changes, even just the person(s) making the product, can have an effect on RAM made x day and same RAM made y day. Thus getting from the same batch (extremely similar serial numbers to prove this) is ideal."

    why should that be true??)
     
  2. dseo80

    dseo80 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    152
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Well, Im not guessing but I do not know the exact details.

    A) Depends, see reason for B)
    B) You want to run your RAM in dual-channel mode, I am not sure of the exact requirements for this to happen, but I think most people suggest using
    two exactly same sticks of RAM for this reason.

    I believe You can Check if your RAM is running in dual-channel using CPU-Z
    If it is in dual-channel, then you dont need to worry yourself.
     
  3. fruithead

    fruithead Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    22
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    i should have said this earlier, but i have not yet put the hynix stick in computer yet, because i wanted an answer first, (and i DEFINITELY want to be in dual channel mode) but if it's ok to "experiment" and check, i would do that, although i am still curious to know why the same brand, same batch, etc, would make a difference
     
  4. dseo80

    dseo80 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    152
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    30
    testing will not change anything (including warranty rights).
     
  5. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

    Reputations:
    4,412
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Using different manufacturer memory is completely fine.
    When you buy memory their are a few things you need to know.
    first off when you buy memory, like corsair, kingston, or transcend, they do not actually make the memory chips on the memory card. They physically design the way that the memory chips work on the memory card.
    Actually their are only 5 main manufacturers of memory:
    1) hynix, 2) SEC (Samsung electronics corporation), 3) Qimonda, 4) Micron technologies, 5) ElPida

    Crucial and Patriot memory are the only manufacturers which are teamed with one of these memory manufacturers. Both use Micron, since they have joint business connections.
    The other brands like corsair, g.skill, kingston and so forth use any memory chip they want, from any one of the manufacturers.

    So in essence that hynix card you have may have the same exact memory chips as say a kingston card.

    So in the end, matching the memory manufacturer is pointless, using different memory manufacturers is completely fine, as long as the same type of memory is being used (like ddr, ddr2, or ddr3 memory)

    K-TRON