Type of HP Ram

I am considering in buying the HP DV8000 with the intel core duo. Nowhere on the site it tells you how fast the ram is, and was wondering if any one knows. I would also like to know what the benefits are of having faster ram. There are three options for the upgrade. 512mb, 1gb, or 2gb DDR2 SDRAM. Are these dual channel? Well any way of helping is much appreciated! Thanks!

 

It'd generally be mentioned if they are dual channel or not (1 x <whatever size> or 2 x <whatever size>). 99.9% of the time all manufacturers use DDR2 @ 533MHz. The HP dv5000 has 533MHz, and I don't see why they'd change it. I am not sure about the difference in a faster ram (frequency wise). There should be,otherwise there's no point. But I'm ignorant as to much of an increase there is in performance. Sorry buddy

 

They should be shipping with 200pin 533MHz(PC 4200) DDR2 SODIMM's. That is the standard notebook RAM used in almost all notebooks. The chipset/CPU is capable of supporting memory upto DDR2 667MHz. Faster memory is generally better but you will have to take into account the effect of latency(the clock cycles for the RAM to react to any data). Higher the clock speeds higher are the latencies. This is particularly true in case of current DDR2 notebook memory. The latency will not be always higher but current 667MHz RAM have higher latencies than 533MHz ones.So, in the end it would generally be around 2 - 5% or more depending on the applications.

I would suggest buying the RAM aftermarket and installing it by yourself. It should be pretty straight forward and wont void any warranties. HP nd other manufacturers tend to overcharge for memories.

Also get more than 1GB RAM if you are interested in runnning Vista(next gen Windows). It needs a lot of RAM.

 

In the DV8000T you have the standard option of DDR2 533Mhz, If I were you I would go with there lowest offereing 256MB and buy aftermarket ram, for much cheap and you will get much better performance.

I now own over 8 sticks of OCZ's 533Mhz and 667Mhz ram in my different Laptops, and it outperforms anything I throw at it. I would buy OCZ instead of paying extra for the cheap HP brand.

OCZ 1GB DDR2 667 (PC2 5400)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820227099

OCZ 1GB DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820227110

Both sets work in my dz8000 and dv8000t