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I have a VGN-Z710DD (Canadian model), running Windows 7 64 bit, came with 4 GB of RAM.
Do you guys know what is the maximum amount that I can put in it, model of RAM and where to get it?
If it helps, it is a Core 2 Duo P 8700 @ 2.53 GHZs
There's a HUGE thread regarding the RAM that the VGN-Z can take. Try the search function.................
Anyways, to be of help.
If you're aiming for the 8GB range, you have to be wary of the fact that the VGN-Z will only take 4GB cards which have 4x chips per side per card.
But if you are aiming for 6GB or just 4GB, an 8x chip card is fine. There's something with the voltage control on the VGN-Z's motherboard which prevents it from running 2x 4GB cards with 8 chips (not too sure if there has been sucess with one 8 chip 4GB card and one 4 chip 4GB card though).
There was a fellow a few months back who bought 2x 4GB Hynix RAMs (which have 8 chips per card). His VGN-Z was registering 6GB, even after BIOS hacking and memory-timer / latency tweaking.
There are 2x companies that I'm aware producing 4x chip 4GB DDR3 SODIMM memory. Kingston and Crucial (and Micron, which is an OEM breakaway company from Crucial). Micron RAM is what 8GB VGN-Zs used to come with in the States and in Japan, but they are extremely hard to find as genuine parts (eBay's riddled with counterfit Microns).
It is preferabble to run 2x identical cards (branding is important as well) side by side if you're going down the 2x RAM sticks road.
That allows for dual-channeling which is slightly* better than with just one card or two different cards.
*difference can't really be seen in real life usage, only through benchmarking.
Stick with Crucial if you can. They're about US$250 now, only one or two months ago they were US$300. I'm hoping for a favourable drop by Christmas time this year...
EDIT - corrected; ignore the words in red; cheers arth1
You don't need identical chips to get dual channel -- you will get dual channel at the fastest common speed and latencies the two dimms can handle. I.e. one card is throttled down to match the other.
And the difference between dual channel or not is
huge and easily seen in real life usage.
You may be thinking about symmetric mode, which is different. To use symmetric mode, the chips have to have identical latency specs (and depending on the BIOS, may even have to have the same identifier), and it gives only a small speed boost which is most easily seen in benchmarking.
Sorry, I realize that I was not clear:
a. I am going for the 8 GB
b. looks like I'lll need the 2 modules with 4x chips
c. type DDR3 SODIMM
d. going off to the Crucial site to see what I can find -- I did try the search but I was unable to locate a thread with a part number, etc. ...
1333MHz cards will work on the VGN-Z. But the CPU can't support it at that speed (1333MHz) so will just simply use those cards at slower 1066MHz. Actually, correct me if I'm wrong with this (again), but only the higher-end i7 CPUs are capable of supporting those clock speeds?
Unfortunately, I can't remember the part codes by heart. There was an ebay seller selling those 8GB packs (genuine, in sealed retail packaging) but those auctions seem to have ended now. Those were going for US$250 and he was open to BEST OFFER offers. Might pay to wait till those auctions are relisted and ask him a few questions.
Just search '8GB SODIMM DDR3' (without the quotation marks) on ebay once every few days. You can't miss this fellow's auction as the photo of the product, the packaging is long and blue.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
