Where do you buy your memory upgrade for new Z Series?

Hi all

I orded my new Z series on the 12th March and the latest update from Sony is between 1st - 8th April delivery. When I configured my model I chose only to have the standard 4gb DDR3 RAM as I thought I could upgrade it myself and the £200 extra for 8gb was a bit steep - so I thought!

I decided to check Crucial and Kingston to see how much 2 sticks of 4gb DDR3 RAM would set me back and to my horror both companies was showing 1 x 4gb stick for £130 + VAT.

Im starting to think the Sony upgrade was a good deal and I am thinking of upgrading through them but as always you have to cancel the order and configure a new model which means new delivery date.

So I am asking you guys where you buy your memory from and is it right that the manufacturers are more expensive than buying from Sony? This was never the case with all my other laptop as I always chose the cheapest RAM option and upgraded myself at a later date at a much cheaper price.

Thanks

Kit

 

If you want matching sticks (meaning brand), it costs more to buy after the fact than to just have Sony install the additional memory.

If you are willing to mix sticks (two 4GB sticks from different brands), you can absolutely saving money over the 8GB upgrade option. But I believe only the CTO configurations come with a single 4GB stick. The preconfigured supposedly use 2 2GB sticks.

 

Word of warning
Got a VPC-Z11Z9E/B until my Signature Glossy Carbon Fiber ships (delayed)
Comes with a core i7 620M, 6GB of ram, 256GB (4x64GB) SSD

Now, the memory config for the 6GB is one Micron 2GB DIMM and one Samsung 4GB DIMM
I had two 4GB sticks from the old Z (remember they both use 1066Mhz sticks) so I thought about trying those out on the new one.
Think again buster!
The laptop threw a continuous reboot fit and the only solution was to replace the original 6GB (2+4) sticks and leave it at that.
The two 4GB sticks were purchased as an 8GB kit (matched pair) from Crucial and they run perfectly on the old Z but not on the new one.

I posted on the owner's thread about this issue and I will report there any future findings as I investigate further.
For the moment the recommendation is: If you plan to upgrade in the future, DO IT NOW.
Will end up being cheaper and you won't have to concern yourself with compatibility of components.

EDIT: and NO, mixing the Samsung and the Crucial 4GB sticks is a BAD idea. Got same results as with the paired crucial sticks.

 

Ok that has made my decision I just called Sonystyle and cancelled my order and I am about to order a new one. I think I am going to go for 8gb RAM and Core I7 620m instead of the I5 540m.

By the way I have heard it is best to have matching sticks of the same size i.e. 2 x 2gb or 2 x 4gb for the full benefit of dual channel so thats why I am avoiding 6gb (2gb & 4gb). Does this matter on notebooks or is it just a desktop thing?

Thanks

 

Good one, nice choise
about the matching sticks and dual channel; you are correct, it matters for notebooks too.
I myself had experiences as well with sony notebooks being picky about the memory sticks you put in them; perfectly good sodimms that worked fine in other notebooks, refused to work in the sony notebook; like nutman said it kept rebooting ... so well done on ordering it straight from sony, you probably spared yourself some misery

 

It definitely does still matter on notebooks. Only matching sticks will be dual channel, which means they'll be faster. You should definitely either get 4GB (2x2GB) or 8GB (2x4GB)

 

Thanks for the advice guys I will definately go for 8gb now. Its just a shame I now have to wait longer for my Z : (

 

This is true for DDR-2, but not DDR-3. You can still run notebook DDR-3 in dual-channel with mismatched sticks. It dual-channels between the chips on each module. However, you can not run it in symmetric mode without matched pairs, and it will run in "stacked assymetric mode", which incurs a speed penalty too. But it's a much smaller penalty than not having dual channel at all (and smaller than L-shaped assymetric mode, which is the best you get on older chipsets when you have two chips of different sizes).

So is running 4+2 GB going to be slower than 2+2 GB? Yes, but you'll have more memory, which for many people would more than weigh up for the RAM access being slightly slower. So it depends on the usage. If running e.g. Photoshop, I'd go with more memory. (Of course 4+4 GB is even better...)

 

Thanks Arth for clarifying the dual channel issue. So 6gb is a very reasonable upgrade and its only around £100. 8gb is £200 which is pricey but still a lot cheaper than buying from crucial or Kingston and they may not function properly.

Im still edging towards 8gb just to future proof it abit more. Im going to spend over £2k so I as well make it as future proof as possible.

Its funny but £200 is almost enough to buy a decent netbook and I am going to spend it on memory!

 

so does anyone know if upgrading the ram in the vaio z can be done in the future? when someone figures out which ram will be compatible with the new z?

or will i wont be able to upgrade later on?

 

I would say yes. Sony has to buy the memory from someone, and I'm sure that person will make the memory for more then just 1 laptop maker. It probably already exists, but people have just brought their brand new vaios and have no good reason to update them yet. Someone should check the stickers on the ram they have and see where they can get updates from.

 

Im sure you can buy the RAM independantly but at least currently it is more expensive to buy form Crucial and Kingston. I checked last night and 1 stick of 4gb 1033 DDR3 RAM costs £160 inc VAT from Kingston but there wasnt any instock from its distributors. Crucial was £340+ for 2 x 8gb RAM kit and it wasnt any better when I did a search on google shop.

At the moment if you can afford the upgrade I would definately get it through Sony as its cheaper and you dont have to worry about compatibility.

 

Until the big memory vendors have "guaranteed compatible" upgrades for the Z1, it's probably best to avoid the generic memory and just go through Sony. Although due to the pricing Sony USA is charging I can see why people would want to do it themselves...