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    A205-S5804 Memory Upgrade, 1x2GB or 2x1GB?

    Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by Williamq, Mar 11, 2008.

  1. Williamq

    Williamq Newbie

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    Bought A205-S5804 for $449 at BB Saturday. Really loved it. But the stock 2x512MB memory is not enough for VISTA.
    Now the question is what type of memory should I buy, 1x2GB or 2x1GB? or give it a try on 2x2GB? I know the spec said it comes with GL960. But all intel chipset identification, GPU-Z and CPU-Z said it's GM965. Also the latest bios version on TOSHIBA support website is 1.9, but my is 2.0.

    Thanks
     
    Williamq, Mar 11, 2008
    #1
  2. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    I would not go for 4GB as chipset might not support. I would go for 2X1GB as will give greter bandwidth than 1X2GB.
     
    powerpack, Mar 11, 2008
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  3. Williamq

    Williamq Newbie

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    Thank you for your quick reply, powerpack
    Does dual channel really important? I read this
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture
    said "no significant difference between single-channel and dual-channel".

    If I go with 1x2GB + 512MB, I can have 2.5GB total.
     
    Williamq, Mar 11, 2008
    #3
  4. allan_huang

    allan_huang Notebook Deity

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    More ram will will usually be better than to have it in dual-channel,
    If you usually use less than 2gb of ram usually, then go with 2x1gb, and it is cheaper too.
     
    allan_huang, Mar 12, 2008
    #4
  5. humeboldt

    humeboldt Newbie

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    Slickdeals has 4GB (2 x 2GB) A-DATA DDR2-667 SoDIMM dual channel laptop memory kit for $63 shipped. The Newegg configurator says that the a205 will take 4gb, but everything else that I have read says 2gb. Has anyone tried 4gb with this machine?
     
    humeboldt, Mar 12, 2008
    #5
  6. MaxxxRacer

    MaxxxRacer Notebook Consultant

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    2x1GB. The A205-S5804 does not support 4GB so a 2x1GB kit is as large as you can get.

    Dual channel is helfpul, especially withy apps that are heavily memory bandwidth dependent.

    I have 2x1GB in my A205 and its PLENTY fast and there is really no need for more memory. Most of the time i have atleast 1.4GB in the prefectch cache.
     
    MaxxxRacer, Mar 12, 2008
    #6
  7. humeboldt

    humeboldt Newbie

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    thanks for the confirmation, the last time I experimented with ram it fried the motherboard. I am sure the 2gb is just fine, 1gb has actually not been bad, even running Solidworks.

    When I bought the laptop I had planned on downgrading to XP, but Vista Premium Home has been ok too, as long as the "adjust system for best performance" box is clicked. all in all, very nice laptop for $450.
     
    humeboldt, Mar 12, 2008
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  8. Williamq

    Williamq Newbie

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    Williamq, Mar 12, 2008
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  9. Misha322

    Misha322 Notebook Enthusiast

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    So I have been trying to find the new BIOS for A205-S5804 laptop and noticed that non-US Toshiba sites tend to have updates before the US Toshiba site. I was able to get the 1.9 off of Australia Toshiba site weeks before it appeared on the US site.

    Now I came across a 2.10 BIOS version on a UK site.
    http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_bios.jsp?service=UK
    Satellite A200 (PSAE6) for Win-VISTA

    You guys think it's an equivalent to the US version model?

    The one I used off of Australia site was: Satellite A200-(PSAF3A)
     
    Misha322, Mar 13, 2008
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  10. Williamq

    Williamq Newbie

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    Tested last night, BIOS Version 2.0 has the same limits.
    If the Slot A has 2GB memory, it will either ignore the memory on Slot B or hang at boot up before VISTA starting.

    I also did the PCMark05/3DMark06 tests after upgrade. The result is 10% lower than before because of the 512MB + 2GB configuration. (The memory is in Flex mode)
     
    Williamq, Mar 14, 2008
    #10
  11. Misha322

    Misha322 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Do you guys think that running A205-S5804 with 3GB (1x1GB & 1x2GB) of RAM vs 2GB (2x1GB) of RAM would be faster or not since 2GB would be two of the same modules matched up?
     
    Misha322, Mar 14, 2008
    #11