RAM upgrade for Vaio SZ: 533 or 667?

hi, i intend to upgrade my SZ280 laptop's ram to 2 x 1gb ddr2 but i'm not sure if i should by 667MHz (PC5300) or just 533MHz?

i read some posts in the forums and found out that certain vaio series only support maximum 533MHz (even though you install the 667MHz ram) like FE series, etc.

could u guys pls confirm if the SZ has the same issue? thank you in advance.

 

I think Sony SZ is the same as FE in their RAM, all 533MHz at the moment. May be when new Vista or Centrino Pro come out, they will upgrade to 667MHz

Just for some curious pricing. Sony drop price in their SZ & FE series (C2D) by $150 in my place. So what I think there will be a new design coming out with the Vista so they trying to get rid of the 'old' design

 

Is it a hardware thing that limits the ram at 533 or will a bios update unlock the full 667?

 

Both the motherboard and the BIOS must support a given RAM speed.

No one [other than Sony] knows if the SZ mb will support 667 because no one has a valid BIOS for the SZ that is written for 667 and that would allow one to check the hardware.

Right now high quality 667 SODIMMs are within $10 of the price of the same RAM in 533 so buy the 667; if you get a new notebook in the near future that runs at 667 then you are set. If not then the SZ will just slow the 667 down to 533 - no problem.

 

But once he buy it, can he check whether the RAM really run at 667 by using 3rd party diagnostic software, such as Sandra? If anyone interested, Sandra can be downloaded from http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=

 

hmm im not gonna get my next laptop soon so i want to buy the correct one. anybody has reliable info on this? otherwise i will get 533 anyway

 

According to Crucial, 667 MHz RAM will work with SZ280 but it is not clear if the 667 MHz RAM will really run at that speed.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=VAIO+VGN-SZ280P/C

Perhaps people who already upgraded to 667 MHz RAM can help the OP by downloading Sandra diagnostic software and run it to check whether it really run at 667 MHz.

http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=

 

Reliable info on what? All of your questions were answered [to the extent they are answerable].

[1] Will the SZ mobo run at 667? - Only Sony knows, ask them [of course they won't tell you].

[2] Even if the mobo won't run at 667 you can put 667 RAM in and the computer will just simply run it at 533 - no problems.

[3] If 533 were significantly cheaper than 667 then I would say buy 533 but since it isn't you might as well get 667 so you can use it in other notebooks if you so choose.

Pretty straightforward...

 

unpluggednonthefly is 100% on. I have 667 RAM in my SZ90 and it clocks at 533. It's a Sony limitation. The RAM itself is 100% compatible.

 

That sucks I bet it won't accept 4GB RAM either which I plan to upgrade once the price drops significantly. Sony is going cheap with this very expensive notebook.

 

Im sure that the performance difference between 533 and 667 is not that noticeble, but it would still be nice to have that extra speed.

 

I still haven't see any Sony VAIO currently support 4GB RAM, may be in the new Santa Rose model.