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Question regarding Laptop RAM compatibility ..

A

ahmadka

Senior member
Hi guys .. I have a Sony VPCF1390X laptop which I purchased from the US 2 years ... It currently has 4 GB (2x 2GB) of DDR3 RAM in it, which according to the specs of the RAM modules, runs at PC1333Mhz ...

I want to upgrade to an 8GB RAM (2x 4GB), but I don't want the value-type Kington memory .. The only alternative I can find in my local market is this DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (From Galaxy):

Corsair CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9

CORSAIR Vengeance Model CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9 Laptop Memory - Newegg.com

I wanted to know if it will be compatible with my laptop, since my laptop runs at 1333 Mhz bus speed, but this RAM's native speed is 1600 Mhz ..

The full spec details of my laptop (generated from CPU-Z) are available here: Ubuntu Pastebin

It's been a while since I was last into hardware stuff, so I want to get the community's opinion ! 🙂
 
There shouldn't be any issues running 1600 MHz RAM at 1333. Your current RAM and the new RAM are both 1.5V so that should be fine.

The only thing I would double-check is, that on some laptops, you'll only have one accessible SODIMM slot for expansion (the other one is soldered down or on the other side of the board or something). So, make sure that you can access both slots.
 
ikachu said:
There shouldn't be any issues running 1600 MHz RAM at 1333. Your current RAM and the new RAM are both 1.5V so that should be fine.

The only thing I would double-check is, that on some laptops, you'll only have one accessible SODIMM slot for expansion (the other one is soldered down or on the other side of the board or something). So, make sure that you can access both slots.
Click to expand...

Well if you go to the following link, you'll see that Crucial also shows one of their RAMs which they 'guarantee' that it will work with my laptop:

http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Sony-...-upgrades.html

And this kit has 2 4GB modules in it, whereas my laptop currently has 2 2GB modules installed ..

So since they 'guarantee', I'm assuming both slots are accessible and upgradeable ..

Although, if they are both located at the same point on the motherboard or not, that's something I'd like to know ..
 
ikachu said:
VAIO manual Page 111

The diagram looks like there might be two slots back to back but you may want to check to be sure.
Click to expand...

Nice find, thanks ! I didn't know it would be that easy.

Another question ... Will this RAM be better to buy, or some 'Value' RAM from Kingston, which is at 1333 Mhz natively ?

I would think that this RAM will still be faster than a 'Value' RAM @ 1333 Mhz, but I just want to confirm this ...
 
You won't notice any perceivable performance difference between the Kingson ValueRAM and the Corsair RAM. Both only operate at 1333MHz, so the only difference will be a matter of timings (which again, you won't notice the difference outside of benchmarks).

Get the cheapest option. Kingston also has a pretty good track record as far as compatibility is concerned.
 
Zxian said:
You won't notice any perceivable performance difference between the Kingson ValueRAM and the Corsair RAM. Both only operate at 1333MHz, so the only difference will be a matter of timings (which again, you won't notice the difference outside of benchmarks).

Get the cheapest option. Kingston also has a pretty good track record as far as compatibility is concerned.
Click to expand...

I do some heavy Photoshop work which involves photoshop files with like 40-50 layers .. When I load these files in Photoshop, it takes 10-15 minutes to open them and stabilize the system .. Photoshop also eats like ~1.7 GB of RAM when I open such files ..

Also, although I'm mainly a console gamer, I may rarely play some games on my laptop ..

So with the above two points in mind, if you still think I still won't notice any difference, then I guess I'll just go with the Kingston Value RAM ...

Let me know what's your opinion with this in the context ...
 
At 1333 I don't think you would notice a difference between the two. Chances are that the Photoshop performance issues are related to only having 4GB of RAM and doing a lot of thrashing on the HDD.

That being said, it may be that your laptop actually does support 1600, and they just shipped it w/ 1333 to save money. If that's the case then running at 1600 will definitely swing things in favor of the more expensive DIMMs.

What's the price diff between the two?
 
Price difference is about $15 maybe, which is of no issue ..

How can I check if my laptop natively supports 1600 Mhz ?
 
Alright thanks guys .. Helpful as always !

I guess I'll go with the 1600 mhz RAM here, as it seems the 1033 mhz is quite rare here nowadays .. Still can get it, but all the outlets says its only available on order ..
 
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