Adding RAM beyond Maximum?

I wanted to upgrade my VAIO SRX77, and all the memory websites as well as Sony said that the model maxed out at 256Mb. But I had a lengthy discussion with a memory vendor who explained that the machine was certified and designed to support a max of 256 (128 on mobo + 128 in one micro-DIMM RAM socket). BUT, he said, you can install more than that if you are willing to take the chance that it will overheat the CPU and may lead to premature failure. He was happy to sell me a 256 micro-DIMM and it installed fine and the laptop seems to be running OK with 384Mb total.

Now, I'd never heard of this before, but it does stand to reason that if you give the CPU more RAM to work with, it WILL work with it, and do so faster because there are fewer artificial slowdowns waiting for memory page swaps. The extra speed could translate into heat that the cooling system cannot dissipate.

Anyone ever hear of this? I wonder what the practical limit is on how far you can take it? Would the risks be similar to overclocking?

Peter.

 

Lol....no heat and stuff. It depends upon the memory controller, how much memory it can address, before losing it to memory-mapped devices when it reaches the limit. Usually there is no physical lock on the memory controller, as to how much RAM you can install, but the BIOS can be restricted from going over a certain limit, because it can cause bugs in some cases. But nothing to do with overheating, etc. RAM doesn't even produce much heat and does not need active cooling.

 

The motherboard and chipset can only support so much. I'm not sure what the maximum is, but the laptop should not run hotter because of it. If the laptop does work harder, it will be because the additional RAM gives you the ability to do more on the laptop.

The amount of RAM you can have is dependent on your BIOS and now many addressing lanes the memory controller has routed to the memory slots.