Do all laptops take the same RAM?

[swee'pea99]

There seem to be some seriously clued up techys around, so...do all laptops take the same RAM, or do you have to choose carefully? (I have an HP/Compaq nx6325 with 1Mb built in, and was thinking of getting another 1Mb wotsit.)

 

[marinyork]

No. Type of ram varies, pins vary (not much nowadays), clocked speed varies. Your laptop may not even be able to take anymore, but that's not incredibly likely, although a possibility.

Try googling the model of your laptop and it will tell you what ram is in that. If not use that crucial memory checker or something similar to work out.

 

[Night Train]

Would this help?

Computer Chat to the rescue HTH

 

[swee'pea99]

Blimey - and they say pooters are quick! Many tas.

 

[fossyant]

If it's fairly new, you'll need matching pairs - so bin what's in and buy 2gb (2 x 1 gb sticks), or even 4gb (2 x 2gb) - it's cheap.

Also watch the speed / FSB rating. The Crucial memory checker is great....

 

[gbb]

Things move so fast...
I brought SWMBO a laptop with 1gb of RAM a couple of years ago.. It seemed so fast but as you put stuff on..it gets slower, annoyingly so.
I upgraded to 2 GB..very easy to do and quite cheap.

2Gb i remember computer hard drives were less than 1GB, let alone the RAM

 

[Mr Pig]

If it's fairly new, you'll need matching pairs - so bin what's in and buy 2gb

Why is that? I thought that as long as the two cards were the same type and size?

I've often heard that you need the two to be he same size but my son's iMac has a 1Gb and a 500Mb card and it seems to work great. Also, the HP laptop we just bought came with a single 1Gb card, not two 500Mb ones.

If your laptop has two cards in the back of it they'll be 500Mb each, so you'll need to buy two 1Gb cards. If it's one 1Gb card you'll just need to buy another. They're pretty cheap right now, about a tenner each!

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Why is that? I thought that as long as the two cards were the same type and size?

I've often heard that you need the two to be he same size but my son's iMac has a 1Gb and a 500Mb card and it seems to work great. Also, the HP laptop we just bought came with a single 1Gb card, not two 500Mb ones.

If your laptop has two cards in the back of it they'll be 500Mb each, so you'll need to buy two 1Gb cards. If it's one 1Gb card you'll just need to buy another. They're pretty cheap right now, about a tenner each!

that used to be the case with old macs. even when i ordered my emac in 04 it was a standard 256 and i ordered an extra 512 so it has 768. you can have slots empty and the new macs just address what is there, up to the maximum (although i believe it is possible to exceed that).

 

[fossyant]

If it's DDR2 - you need 2 chips to get dual channel !

 

[swee'pea99]

If your laptop has two cards in the back of it they'll be 500Mb each, so you'll need to buy two 1Gb cards. If it's one 1Gb card you'll just need to buy another. They're pretty cheap right now, about a tenner each!

Interesting! I have to admit that having established it had 1Gb, I just assumed it was a single 1Gb card...never occured to me it might be two x 1/2Mb cards. Is that likely? I guess I should just check it - it's just I'm away from the beastie right now and I was about to order.

In related news, are desktop PCs the same, in the sense that you have to get 'the right' RAM, or will any old stick do?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

[quote name='swee'pea99']Interesting! I have to admit that having established it had 1Gb, I just assumed it was a single 1Gb card...never occured to me it might be two x 1/2Mb cards. Is that likely? I guess I should just check it - it's just I'm away from the beastie right now and I was about to order.

In related news, are desktop PCs the same, in the sense that you have to get 'the right' RAM, or will any old stick do?[/QUOTE]

2 512kb chips are a good possibility, and no, don't just get any old ram for the desktop, you'll need to know what sort to order. google the make and model of your computer.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks. I'll have a poke around tonight and do a bit of googling.

 

[Funtboy]

Try these. They'll tell you exactly what you need.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

http://www.orcalogic.co.uk/asp/default.asp

http://www.memorybits.co.uk/computer_memory.php

IThangyou

 

[Mr Pig]

[quote name='swee'pea99']...never occured to me it might be two x 1/2 Gb cards. Is that likely?[/quote]

I don't know. Most of the computers I've seen had a single big card rather than two smaller ones but I'm hardly an expert.

 

[swee'pea99]

Turns out it is a single 1Gb. So I used that link kindly provided by Night Train, only to find there are two versions - (DDR2-533) and (DDR2-667). Anyone know what's the difference/which I need?