ThinkPad R51 RAM upgrade

Hey guys, I have a RAM upgrade question.

My bro has a R51 from 2005. I looked it up on the lenovo site and it says the installed ram is DDR PC 2700.

Is it possible to install DDR2 RAM in there? DDR seems to be much more expensive than DDR2.

Also it seems like the unit has two different places where the memory can be put! ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-53166)

His computer is a R51 1829 which from here seems to say it can only take DDR ram..

Anybody with experience upgrading the R51? i sure hope the thing can take DDR2 since both seem to be 200 pin!

 

Sorry but DDR2 is not backwards compatible with DDR. Even though they have the same number of pins, the notchs are in a different place so it wont fit.
http://www.kingston.com/newtech/ddr2/ddr2_vsddr.asp

You might be able to find some deals for DDR memory at the Hot ram deals thread(look towards the bottom of the first post).

 

Since DDR2 is dominant right now you're going to find the best deals on it rather than the older memory. You're stuck using PC2700 or PC3200 which will downclock. I've upgraded memory on older R series. It's not that hard. As you've seen the memory is located it two places. Kind of dumb, but that's the way it is.

 

ah..so if i installed PC3200, it will downclock to PC2700! i was wondering about that when I was looking at the chart for the RAM options on the lenovo site!

I watched the video from the lenovo site. and it seems like there is one ram slot under the keyboard, and one near the battery. ..at first i thought it was 2 under the keyboard, and then extras near the battery...

I checked the ram deals thread yesterday just in case, and was not really impressed with the prices for DDR. now i'm stuck wondering if I we should just use the computer as is for another year and then buy a new one.

if i do upgrade, then it's probably only gonna be 1 stick of 1 GB, plus the 512mb already in there...

 

If you are running XP I would only get another 512MB unless you have a specific need. You might be able to get a better deal on some used memory on eBay.

 

the laptop won't be used for anything intensive on a regular basis. So i guess another 512, could do, but i did find a sale on ebay for a 1GB going for about $60 incl. shipping, thats about $10 cheaper than i could find on some online stores in Canada.

and considering how most of the 512 DDR i can find cost over $30, I think i'll go for that unless some more info comes up.

 

Does anybody know if PC3200 would work in this laptop?
or would it just downclock to PC2700?

 

It should work, but downclock.