Really dumb question about laptop memory

[sdifox]

I just got a laptop for my wife (Acer Extensa EX5620-6830) this one and it comes with 2x512mb ddr2-667. My question is can I pull 1 512 and stick in a 2gb? It is based on GM965.

I am assuming it can be done, but just needed to make sure it's ok. The laptop does support 4gb. This way I can salvage 1 512 module and get 2.5gb in the laptop.

 

[Zap]

It should work fine. I've mixed modules in my Dell Inspiron 6000 with a 256MB and 512MB previously, and currently have mismatching 512MB modules. Soon I'll have a 512MB and 1GB module in there.

 

[sdifox]

danke, just ordered a 2gb module from amazon.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: sdifox
danke, just ordered a 2gb module from amazon.

Hope you didn't pay too much through Amazon - Newegg has 2GB DDR2 sticks (for notebooks) for under $40.

Also, I have the same setup in my laptop - 2GB stick + a 512MB stick. I went with the 2GB stick to upgrade because the other stick of RAM is under the keyboard and I didn't want to take apart my whole notebook to upgrade the 2nd stick.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511

Originally posted by: sdifox
danke, just ordered a 2gb module from amazon.

Hope you didn't pay too much through Amazon - Newegg has 2GB DDR2 sticks (for notebooks) for under $40.

Also, I have the same setup in my laptop - 2GB stick + a 512MB stick. I went with the 2GB stick to upgrade because the other stick of RAM is under the keyboard and I didn't want to take apart my whole notebook to upgrade the 2nd stick.

I would love to shop in a lot of the websites, except I am in Canada and newegg does not like me... oh well.

ps found a solution, had my buddy down south order it, thanx for saving me money 🙂

 

[alkemyst]

You can even mix and match speeds usually...however, it will default to running the speed of the slowest module. My dad's laptop takes PC2100, but had PC2100 and PC2700 in it.

 

[Zap]

I just popped in my $5AR 1GB stick into my Inspiron 6000. Now it shows up as 1.5GB RAM and both the BIOS and CPU-Z report it running in dual channel mode. :shocked: The new stick is Crucial DDR2-667 and old one is Kingston DDR2-533. Both running at 533.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Zap
I just popped in my $5AR 1GB stick into my Inspiron 6000. Now it shows up as 1.5GB RAM and both the BIOS and CPU-Z report it running in dual channel mode. :shocked: The new stick is Crucial DDR2-667 and old one is Kingston DDR2-533. Both running at 533.

If you have two mis-matched (size) sticks, you can still run dual-channel; asymmetric dual channel works like this:
You have a 512MB stick and a 1GB stick - 512MB stick runs in dual-channel with the first 512MB of the 1GB stick, the remaining 512MB on the 1GB stick runs in single-channel. In either case, there is more than enough memory bandwidth without dual-channel in a laptop (due to the size of the memory controller), so you really don't see the improvement that you normally see in desktops.

 

[alfa147x]

I plan one doing the same to my laptop soon