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Help me buy RAM for HP laptop.

GoodEnough

GoodEnough

Golden Member
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c02497777

2010 HP laptop. Win7 64bit.

wi6flh.jpg


Specs show 3GB DDR-3
Comes installed w/ 2GB and 1GB stick.

What is my best bang for the buck?
Replace 1GB stick with 4GB stick?

I just need DDR-3?

Can you help me find a good price for 2GB or 4GB?
This would put the laptop to 4GB or 6GB.
Perfect.
 
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Yeah a 4gb DDR3 SODIMM module will do. Lots of them around, should cost you $20-$25 or so. There's 8gb modules as well. Don't know what laptop that is, so you might want to look into compatibility, using something like the Crucial Memory advisor on their website.
 
To do it properly you want to buy a dual channel kit. Dual channel kit's contain two sticks which will work in dual channel without any issues. You want DDR3 PC3-10600 which is the same speed printed on your existing sticks. I would get this:

Corsair - CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9
 
What's up with dual channel? Is it required?

$80 is more than I want to spend on a 3 year old laptop.

Why can't I just upgrade the 1GB to 4GB and have a total of 6GB?
That's plenty. You're saying they won't worth together?
 
I can't tell you if dual channel is required or not or whether mixing RAM modules is OK or not. It all depends on what you do with this laptop and how important maximum stability is to you. Technically it has always been advised not to mix non-matching RAM modules in the same system. Dual channel is what most new systems use, it means RAM is working in parallel. As they're working together, RAM modules are matched, same brand, model, speed, voltage etc which is why they are sold in kits. To use a car analogy, it's the same as putting different discs and pads on each end of an axle, yes the car will brake, but you wouldn't advise it.

The only way you'll find out if you get any issues just replacing the 1GB with a 4GB is to try it and see.
 
Here is what I recommend:

Go to Crucial; download their interactive tool; let it read your individual system. See what they recommend. just form that, you will learn what is right for you, including paris of sticks or other.

Using that knowledge, you can then choose to say, go on eBay and see if you can get wut U decide for less than what you would give on Crucial....but, the goal is to learn what is right for your lappy in specifics. And here, is the route:

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en
 
“Upgrade in pairs of RAM sticks”
Is this just a placebo marketing scam to make you buy product?
Or is it legit?
 
Crucial website suggest RAM that is 1.35v
The Corsair replacements (and others) say 1.5v
Does this matter?
 
GoodEnough said:
“Upgrade in pairs of RAM sticks”
Is this just a placebo marketing scam to make you buy product?
Or is it legit?
Click to expand...


THE LATTER. Crucial has been around forever; they are real deal. I SAID, use the tool to learn the vital facts; then, should you choose, get what you then know is proper for the system wherever U want.
 
GoodEnough said:
“Upgrade in pairs of RAM sticks”
Is this just a placebo marketing scam to make you buy product?
Or is it legit?
Click to expand...

It's around 95% BS. But there are instances of RAM sticks that just don't like each other.

Dual channel, no, you don't need it. Nearly all app performance is pretty removed from memory performance, and running out of memory is going to be FAR more impactful than additional memory speed.

This is the cheapest 4GB SODIMM on pcpartpicker:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057XG88I/?tag=pcpapi-20
 
I have the same vintage HP laptop for use at work, and I'm currently running a mixture of memory sticks (2 GB and 4 GB). It's an HP ProBook 6455b.

Maybe take a look at the manual of your laptop to see if they somehow prevent mixing different sticks of memory (highly doubtful). And I can tell you from personal experience that a human being doing normal use of the laptop is not sensitive enough to even tell whether the memory is running in dual channel mode or mixed/non-dual channel. You could probably tell if you ran a benchmarking utility, but I feel like the laptop is much snappier and responsive due to increased ram. You'll notice the boost in ram capacity, but can't notice the difference of going dual channel. So I suggest it's best just to buy another stick and replace the 1 GB.

Also, a difficulty to keep in mind, if your laptop is like my work HP laptop, is that one stick is accessible through the bottom panel, and the other stick requires disassembly of the laptop to remove the keyboard to access the ram underneath. So I get a bad feeling that your larger memory stick is probably the easier one to access, and you will have to dig deep to try to get to the 1 GB stick, because just to be difficult.
 
Thanks for the advice.

I am going to ignore the 1.35v vs 1.5v issue.

If the cheapest used option is 4GB for $35,
I will splurge for the 2x4GB for about $50 used for 2x4GB = 8GB.

8GB + SSD should make the laptop quite decent for basic use.
 
Last edited:
KingFatty said:
Also, a difficulty to keep in mind, if your laptop is like my work HP laptop, is that one stick is accessible through the bottom panel, and the other stick requires disassembly of the laptop to remove the keyboard to access the ram underneath. So I get a bad feeling that your larger memory stick is probably the easier one to access, and you will have to dig deep to try to get to the 1 GB stick, because just to be difficult.
Click to expand...

They are both easily accessed from the bottom panel.
 
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