JT! Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 (edited) I need more ram. I've haven't cracked open the laptop yet, but I know it has a 4gb DDR3 1333MHz in there with one slot available. I spoke to a guy at work about it and he gave me some advice but I'd thought it'd run it by the TF brain trust. 1. Should I get another 4GB, or an 8GB? I was told that having mismatching RAM can kind of mess up them running well together, but that's irrelevant because having a total of 12GB is better than having a total of 8GB and would out preform any issues caused by it being mismatched. 2. I was also told if I get RAM faster than the one I already have, it'll be limited by the slowest ram. So it's pointless spending money on RAM that's faster. Is that true? 3. I'm using a site that tells me all the RAM that's compatible, and it pretty much all looks the same to me, anything I should look out for, or go with or don't go with any particular brand name? Any more advice that people want to throw at me would be appreciated as always. Edited December 5, 2012 by JT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 1. Should I get another 4GB, or an 8GB? I was told that having mismatching RAM can kind of mess up them running well together, but that's irrelevant because having a total of 12GB is better than having a total of 8GB and would out preform any issues caused by it being mismatched. Stick to matching RAM where possible. As long as the RAM timings and frequency match they will work, but it's so much easier to just get matching RAM. I speak from experience! (I'm running mismatching RAM now, getting it to run smoothly is a nightmare). I'd recommend getting a single 8gb module and selling the 4gb one, as you will then have double the RAM already but if needed, you should be able to go to 16gb without much hassle. If you can't be bothered selling the 4gb module on though, just get another 4gb module. The likelyhood of you needing over 8gb in a laptop is pretty small I'd imagine. 2. I was also told if I get RAM faster than the one I already have, it'll be limited by the slowest ram. So it's pointless spending money on RAM that's faster. Is that true? Yep, that's true. Also, any DDR3 only runs at 1333mhz maximum natively. If you buy 1600mhz, 1866mhz or higher, it will run at 1333mhz unless you set it higher yourself, because anything over 1333mhz on DDR3 is officially an overclock. (There are a couple of exceptions, some modern RAM controllers will auto-overclock to higher speeds). 3. I'm using a site that tells me all the RAM that's compatible, and it pretty much all looks the same to me, anything I should look out for, or go with or don't go with any particular brand name? I swear by Crucial RAM personally, but other big-name manufacturers are usually fine. If you want this to be easy, just buy another matching 4gb module. Your laptop is fairly modern I believe (didn't you buy it recently?), so you should be able to find a matching module without too much hassle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 RAM is so cheap I'd just buy 2 sticks to know they're matching and go for the max you can put in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Not that cheap really JD, or simple. The max RAM in 2 slots in a laptop is 2x8gb, for a total of 16gb, however only certain memory controllers actually support 8gb modules. There are several that only support 4gb ones. Plus 2x8gb is around £70, which isn't really very cheap. (Considering 2x4gb costs round £30). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Yeah just got it a month or so ago. I might just go with a matching 4GB one then, only reason I was going to go with an 8GB is because it was only a few dollars more than a 4GB. But if non matching ram's gonna be an issue I won't bother. I could put two 8's in there JD but honestly even if it was a dollar more it'd be a dollar wasted. Getting another 4 is going to be less than $20, but two 8's is going to be 3 times that. Going to open up the laptop now and see what's in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted December 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Well that took an embarrassingly long time. "m471b5273dh0". Samsung apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 ...only certain memory controllers actually support 8gb modules. There are several that only support 4gb ones. ...go for the max you can put in there. I don't remember recommending putting anything in there that can't go in there... The way I see it is, if you're upgrading ram you might as well go for the full whack. You're going to want to put the max in at some point, so you either upgrade once or more. If you go for the $20 option you've got to hope that 2 8gb sticks work out less that $40 by the time you want to upgrade again, otherwise it's a false economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 I don't remember recommending putting anything in there that can't go in there... The way I see it is, if you're upgrading ram you might as well go for the full whack. You're going to want to put the max in at some point, so you either upgrade once or more. If you go for the $20 option you've got to hope that 2 8gb sticks work out less that $40 by the time you want to upgrade again, otherwise it's a false economy. Thought you meant that max that would physically fit in there. My bad. Why would he ever need more than 8gb? I'm running 8gb in my desktop and doubt I'll ever need more. Chances are if he fits 8gb, it'll be enough until it's time to upgrade the laptop, by which time DDR4 may be out, and he won't be able to transfer the upgrade across. 8gb is still a 100% increase over stock... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 Beware. I attempted to crank my laptop up to 4gb but the power supply couldn't handle all of that. I still have the spare stick knocking around. Try and find out what power supply your laptop runs before you buy a pile of ram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 5, 2012 Report Share Posted December 5, 2012 You sure about that dude? How did you reach that conclusion? RAM takes a tiny (really tiny) amount of watts/voltage to run. I'd bet substantial money on it just being incompatible or a dodgy stick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Remember ages ago I told you about ram problems? You gave me this test to put on a CD and run, and told me to run it with both and then each ram stick. It worked fine with either stick but as soon as the second one went in it shat bricks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omgnoseat Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I had the same problem, had two different sets of ram, 256mb and 512mb (this was about 7 years ago ) and whe I put em both I had worse performance than when I used the single 256mb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Remember ages ago I told you about ram problems? You gave me this test to put on a CD and run, and told me to run it with both and then each ram stick. It worked fine with either stick but as soon as the second one went in it shat bricks. Nah don't remember it at all lol. Did you manually set the timings and frequencies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 No Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Try Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamKidney Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Slightly off topic... but does anyone know how the 2nd gen i3 proccessors rate against the i5s? Im getting my Aspire next week, mainly for coursework and general leisure, but Im planning on running the odd simulator too. My dads i5 Aspire copes with no problems, all smooth play and rarely runs slow, if at all. Just wondering how mine may cope. Can the proccessor be changed if its not up to the job? Sorry, Im a noob when it comes to computing. :$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 For laptops or desktops? Simply put though, they're significantly cheaper and significantly slower. I have an i5-3210m in my laptop, and it's not exactly "gutsy" IMO. It's fast enough for the stuff I do, but I wouldn't want anything slower. The main difference in laptop land is that the i3 is a dual core without hyperthreading, so it has 2 threads, whereas the i5 is a faster dual core with hyperthreading, so it has 4 threads, all of which are faster than one of the i3's threads. (Roughly speaking, that's not how hyperthreading actually works but that's the simple explanation lol). The CPU can be changed, but it's a ballache. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o0jack0o Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Slightly off topic... but does anyone know how the 2nd gen i3 proccessors rate against the i5s? Im getting my Aspire next week, mainly for coursework and general leisure, but Im planning on running the odd simulator too. My dads i5 Aspire copes with no problems, all smooth play and rarely runs slow, if at all. Just wondering how mine may cope. Can the proccessor be changed if its not up to the job? Sorry, Im a noob when it comes to computing. :$ If it's a Laptop its pretty hard to change the processor, largely due to each laptop being different sizes and as components fit snugly inside it. If it's a desktop its not as difficult I don't think but it may be worth getting the manufacturer to do it for you. Not sure on the the differences between the generations but personally I would recommend just getting the best available when you buy it at the start. As then you can guarantee a long life time and its more economy friendly. Else you have a half decent laptop that will need to be replaced within a couple of years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamKidney Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 (edited) If it's a Laptop its pretty hard to change the processor, largely due to each laptop being different sizes and as components fit snugly inside it. If it's a desktop its not as difficult I don't think but it may be worth getting the manufacturer to do it for you. Not sure on the the differences between the generations but personally I would recommend just getting the best available when you buy it at the start. As then you can guarantee a long life time and its more economy friendly. Else you have a half decent laptop that will need to be replaced within a couple of years. Cheers! Its a laptop. These are the simulators recommended system requirements: Operating System: Windows XP, Vista, 7 Processor: Dual Core Processor or better Memory: 4 GB Video Memory: 512 MB (GeForce 9800 or better) Sound card: DirectX Compatible Hard disc: 6 GB Other: Keyboard and Mouse, Pixel Shader 3.0 I assume this will be fine? I dont know the difference between dual core processors and the i3, if there is one. The rest of the spec fits easily with the laptops system. Edited December 7, 2012 by Echo Lite 09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o0jack0o Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Yeah from that spec it looks like it should be fine. Don't know the exact differences between the duals and i series processors but simply put the i series is better than dual core which is better than a single core. Not sure if you know this but here a simple explanation on a few components that may help you with choosing a laptop. processor - affects the speed of processing data (doing things) RAM - affects the number of tasks that can be run simultaneously Dedicated Graphics card - IF you have this it can take some load off the processor when it comes to graphics 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.