Upgrading R61 to 4 gb ram? 800 or 667? PM965

I currently have a lenovo R61 running the Intel PM965 mainboard. CPU is the T8100 which runs at 2.1 ghz and 800mhz FSB. Memory that came with the laptop (2 gigs, dual channel) is currently 667. I have heard that if I update drivers or motherboard firmware I can run 800 mhz memory at its full speed, and should get a significant performance boost.

True or not? I am about to buy a 4 gig dual channel kit from newegg (OCZ 800 MHZ, CAS latency 5.0). Will I be forced to run this memory at 667 or can I run it at its full capacity?

Also, does anyone know if this CAS is ideal in this laptop?

Thanks!!

edit: Forgot to add that the reason I am doing this is to improve video editing (adobe premiere / master collection) performance. I will be also installing 2003 server 64 bit.

 

It seems unlikely, but I doubt it makes much of a difference either way.

 

No the ram will not run at 800mhz.

Yes the CAS is good. You can lower it if you want with thaiphoon burner. I can help you with that.

If you want the ram to run at 800mhz (or more) you have to overclock the FSB. I can also help with this, if you can find the PLL (clock generator) in your notebook:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=429383

 

Not sure if I want to OC this thing, as I want to keep it for awhile. It does run fairly cool though, so who knows.

Does overclocking help much with video editing? right now I have a crashing problem (my main issue) when running premiere CS3. Im hoping upgrading my OS + CS4 + 2 gigs extra should make things run much, much more smoothly

 

Yes overclocking the FSB (CPU and ram will be overclocked) will help with video editing. You want to have a fast CPU.

Or if you don't overclock you could try running tighter timings on the ram.


By the way, I overclocked my T8100 to 2.7ghz and it was fully stable. I don't see any reason not to do so.

 

How much did your heat increase under load? Any major adverse effects on battery life? ( I can assume there would be a minor one )

This pack look good? Newegg has crucial for 10 bucks less (ignoring rebate) too but states its CAS 6, not 5 ( Im currently running CAS 5 with the two 1 gig sticks)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227251


Also, if I decide to not OC the CPU, can I undervolt it?

 

My max temp was around 70C (battery life was not really affected because of speedstep).

Also the idle temp was the same. Because of intel speedstep.

The ram you have runs CAS5 at 667mhz. The cheap CAS6 ram will also run CAS5 at 667mhz because it's rated for 800mhz. So if it was running at 800mhz it would have CAS6, but your chipset will run it at 667mhz CAS5.

Then again, the OCZ ram may run @667mhz with CAS4 (but you would have to check the SPD).

The timings don't matter as long as the EEPROM does not have WP enabled. Because you can flash a new SPD table with thaiphoon burner. So go for the cheaper ram, unless you want to overclock the FSB.

Yes you can undervolt. I got my max multi to 0.9500V. So did another forum user with a T8100.
So I would expect all of your FIDs to be 0.9500V (which is the lowest value that you can have with this CPU).

 

Im going to go with the faster ram (OZC) I think just in case I want to overclock during times I really need the extra juice.

Now, the only question is....

Windows 7 64

or

Xp 64?

Or server 2003 or something?

 

xp 64 is the worst OS ever. Basically no driver support.

If you want 64 then it's either win7, vista or linux.

I don't know about server 2003 though.

 

(Windows 7 x64)^100

 

Considering Xp probably wont see the full ram, I think ill just go with 7. Hopefully I still get a good boost on speed....I know xp is stlil considered faster