Silly question, Bare with me.

Just recieved my CTO DV4000. So far it's excellent! I didn't upgrade the RAM, since I knew I could get a better deal aftermarket. It has 1 stick 256MB DDR2 4200. I'm trying to decide if I should invest in 1 stick of 512MB DDR2 4200 or a 1GB DDR2 4200. The smaller stick is $48+$4 shipping, the larger stick is $106+$4 shipping. Both prices are for OCZ brand, and come from Newegg.com. I have a $30+ gift cert. I can use at newegg so I definitly want to get it there. I only ever want to have one stick in the mobo, since I'm saving battery power with DDR2. I'm pretending like I won't try to game on this thing, but I imagine at some point my true nature will take over, I have a pretty good desktop, so most of my heavy usage will be a that computer.

 

I don't think you are saving that much battery life by only having one stick of memory in there. If you want good battery life, get the 12 cell battery. Personally would go with the 1GB stick. Good Luck.

 

I purchased a 1GB PC2-4200 Kingston Value module from NewEgg for $95 shipped about one month ago. It runs great (i.e. comp runs at 100% 24/7) even when undervolted (1.148V max). In a non-overclocked situation I don't think you'd see a stability difference between Kingston Value and OCZ.

Also, I thought like you about not gaming, then I caved in and have really enjoyed the X700.

Good luck.

 

Sadly, When I set my notebook up the Mobile Radeon was not an option. The Intel graphics adapter is a 3D card though, hopefully the graphics aperature will open up when I get new memory in there. It's set to 64MB right now. Also, from what I have read(I'll find the links) DDR2 provides an addition 5%-10% batt. life, approximatly. I did indeed go for the 12 cell battery, for the longevity and ergonomics. I liked the OCZ better for it's tigher timings, and not a big Kingston fan in general. Not being really familiar with Intel CPU architecture I don't know if better timings are going to translate into better performance. Thanks for posting back btw.

 

Yes, you need at least 512 megs of ram for the Intel GMA 900 graphics to go to its maximum of sharing 128 megs of system memory. It will still be extremely slow however. I wish I had gotten my DV4000 when the X700 came out for it, well, thats technology for ya!

Anyone know if HP will release a dedicated gpu, like the X600 for the DV1000????

 

My uncle works for AMD on the marketing end, and is usually sent in as a rep. to HP. He mentioned that HP may update their video card in their new dv8000 series about 4-8 months after its released later this year. He tells me that HP hasn't told him anything about updating their dv1000 line, but if competition heats up with Dell (Dell's new XPS M140), HP will probably stick in a X300 or a X600 card in the dv1000.

 

Hi,

I got a DV4000 with DDR2-4200 256mb and I bought 1gb of Kingston DDR2 4200. The thing is that CPU-Z detects them as 4300, and going at 266Mhz... shouldn't it work at a much higher speed?
Which result do you get guys?

Thanks!

 

266MHz is the real clock speed. Since the memory is dual data rate(DDR) it effectively doubles the performance giving it the same performance as a 533MHz SDR(single data rate) RAM. All DDR memory have real and rated clock speeds, hence the difference in their speeds.

 

Argh! I totally forgot about the dual data rate! I had read it somewhere, but I had forgotten about it.

Thanks!

 

Yes - the listed clocks are nominal clocks, not real ones. To get the real clock divide the nominal clock by two. So, DDR2 533 actually runs at 266MHz.

Technically, DDR2 533 runs at 133MHz (4x133 = 533), because DDR2 533 has an I/O buffer clock of 266 MHz, but its internal core clock is 133 MHz.

Chaz