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Which laptop memory?

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ripit

Member
Joined
May 16, 2004
A friend wants my help finding some memory for her laptop. It is a toshiba satalite (I cannot find where I wrote down the exact model but I already looked it up and it is 200 pin ddr2 pc4200 so-dimms. I'm having a hard time with the latencys and specs though. Half the modules only tell the first latency and I would think that the diffrence between say 4-4-4-8 (like ocz) and 4-4-4-15 would seem significant to me (but I'm not realy farmiliar with ddr2 memory at all).
She could get kingston locally for 85$ (on sale at best buy)
http://akimages.crossmediaservices.com/listingimages/Retailers/bestbuy/ImageComingSoon200_SL.JPG
All I can fins is that the latency is 4 (and I'm not even sure of that as that exact model number doesnt come up on kingstons site). Ocz seems to have the best latency of the stuff on newegg so far as I Can tell, but will it really make that much diffrence?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227110
I really don't want to have to deal with mail order if the memory winds up being incompatible, so do laptops have a big problem with that? Any other sugestions for 85$ or less or should I just recomend the kingston since it is local?

Another option would be a dual channel kit but mushkin seems the only option on newegg and the latency is 4-4-4-12. Would the higher latency just kill the small advantage you would get from dual channel?

I should mention that this is a cheap low spec celeron notebook with 256MB installed and right after booting (no programs runing) video is already dynamically alocating about 70MB of memory so more memory of any kind is the major performance issue. Another possibility would be to get a 512MB stick and run it with the 256MB already in there (she want to stay inexpensive as possible) but I'm worried about further compatibility problems there. Higher speed memory would also be an option (if thats what I can find on sale). I assume that pc5300 will run at pc4200 speed and will have lower than spec default latency as it is running a slower speed, right?
 
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The last latency number doesn't really matter. The memory in the notebook is probably very cheap and older type thus the latencies will probably be high. Notebook will operate with latencies of the slower memory. If you would get cpuz it would tell exact memory latency on that notebook.

Pc5300 will proably work as pc4200 but the memory timing won't be any better. Since notebooks don't have adjustable memory settings.
 
"Performance" memory is useless in Laptops. Even high end laptops. Just get the most inexpensive memory you can get, as long as it's not Ultra or PNY. That will take care of ya.
 
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