S380 RAM upgrade question

I have searched the forums, but cannot find any information.

I want to upgrade the RAM on my S380 (currently 256MBx2). According to specs, I think this module should work fine, but I cannot find any specific info on whether it will work.

Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
KVR533D2S4/1G

If I use the Kingston configurator, it directs me to a specific module for the S380, which is very expensive compared to this valur ram option.

Can anyone shed any light on whether this should be compatible with the S380?

Thanks,

Ro

 

That RAM will work, I think the configurator might be pushing thier high end stuff. Compare the prices with Crucial

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?model=VAIO+VGN-S380+Series&tabid=AM

 

I ordered the Kingston 533MHz DDR2 PC 4200 X 2 that Newegg sells. I should have it Monday and will let you know.

Sony tech support told me it must be 400MHz PC 3200, but I don't think they really know what they are talking about. The Crucial web site does suggest PC 4200 for this model (well, the S460 is what I have), and I went into their live chat with a tech who double checked and told me it should work.

Once I get it, I'll also run a bench mark to see if it's any faster than the PC 3200 that came with the notebook. It doesn't cost any more, if fact PC 4200 seems a bit cheaper.

 

Renoguy, did you buy the $57.79 ones or the $63.39 ones from newegg? Keep us posted on how it works out for you when you get it because I'll probably buy the same ones also.

 

I ordered the cheaper ones (model KVR533D2S4/512), and they were just under $55 ea when I ordered, and that price was up, so looks like memory prices are going up a bit.

I debated getting a single 1GB stick instead for 512MBx2. The price is about the same and that might pull a bit less power, but I understand you might get better performance using two matched sticks in dual channel mode. We'll see. Anybody know a memory benchmark that will report if your memory is running in dual channel?

Tracking says I should get them tomorrow (7/10), and I'll report back.

 

OK, I got my 512MB X 2 DDR2 PC4200 Kingston memory from newegg.com and plugged it in. The good news is it works! I'll go into more detail, but bottom line is I did not see a major memory speed benchmark improvement from the 256MB X 2 PC3200 Samsung that came with my S460. It was only about 1% faster (of course the total memory went from 512MB to 1GB so some memory intensive applications will run much faster).

I also looked to see what might happen if you install a single 1GB stick vs. 512MB X 2 as I did. It looks like you will see about a 6% drop in performance because you are not running in dual channel mode.

OK, the details... The benchmark I ran was the The Memory Bandwidth Benchmark that comes with SiSoftware Sandra 2005 Lite. It reports an Int ALU bandwidth and a Float FPU bandwidth (MB/s).

With the stock 2x256MB I got 2900/2894.
Removing one stick to 1x256MB it drops to 2726/2733.

With a single 1x512MB I got 2755/2754, slightly better than 1x256.
With 2x512MB it improves to 2922/2931, I assume running in dual channel mode.

I also tried 1 256MB stick and 1 512MB stick (768MB total), for those of you who might be considering buying a 1GB stick and running with 1.256GB RAM. I got scores of 2733/2754, so I guess it wasn't running dual channel.

Next I ran 3dMark03 to see if 3D video improves due to the faster PC4200 RAM (and our GPU uses shared system memory). With the latest nVidia Forceware 7.7.7.2 (no tweeks) I got a score of 2657 for 2x256MB PC3200 and 2668 for 2x512MB PC4200. Not a significant difference.

In the main board information page, Sandra reports the Samsung memory that came with the notebook as 256MB 4x(32Mx16) PC2-3200U 3.0-3-3-8.

The Kingston is reported as 512MB 8x(32Mx16) PC2-4300U (yes, 4300 even though I ordered 4200 and the chips are marked 4200) 4.0-4-4-12 (greater latency).

But when I run the benchmark, the Samsung is reported as 3.0-3-3-8 1 CMD and the Kingston as 3.0-3-3-9 1 CMD. Not sure why.

So the PC-4200 does work, but does not give a great speed improvement, at least not on the Sony S460. But you do lose about 6% in performance if you run off just one stick, or mix sticks.

 

Sorry for reviving this OLD thread, but I also have an S380 and am looking to upgrade to 533 MHz (same model as the OP was asking about).

First question, will our BIOS/mobo allow for RAM 533 MHz or will it just downclock it to 400 MHz? I'm asking because I know some mobos will downclock RAM speed and if that's the case, I will just get another stick of 400 MHz RAM instead of buying 2 sticks of 533 MHz RAM.

Second, so the RAM in the OP's question will work?

Thanks.