Knyte wrote:

This is true, regarding in store coverage of systems. The last Lenovo I had come through, was a standard mATX system. I swapped out the dead mobo with a new MSI one, swapped the chip and RAM, and sent it right back out the door. I was pretty impressed. So, maybe it is a newer trend for Lenovo. Though the system was at least a few years old, as it was a LGA775 with a dual core Pentium in it.

Ah, you got an IBM machine. When Lenovo bought the product line, they continued the build process for a year or two before moving to their own production model.

If IBM were a vendor I'd consider them. They generally keep things pretty standardized... that is probably because they helped make the standards.

The Radeon HD 5850 will make gaming much more fun if that is something you care about.

Atma wrote:

Computer question myself. Upgrading RAM. Do I need two sticks of the same size? for example. I Currently have 4GBs of RAM and want to uprade to 6GB. Can I use a 4GB and a 2GB stick? or do I need two 3GB sticks? If thats the case I might just bite the bullet and spend the extra cash for two 4GB and kick it up to 8GB.

What motherboard and processor do you use? If you bought the computer from a vendor, what model is it?

RAM is a funny thing... depending upon the type you must use, the answers change.

Atma wrote:

GPFontaine wrote: Atma wrote: Computer question myself. Upgrading RAM. Do I need two sticks of the same size? for example. I Currently have 4GBs of RAM and want to uprade to 6GB. Can I use a 4GB and a 2GB stick? or do I need two 3GB sticks? If thats the case I might just bite the bullet and spend the extra cash for two 4GB and kick it up to 8GB. What motherboard and processor do you use? If you bought the computer from a vendor, what model is it? RAM is a funny thing... depending upon the type you must use, the answers change. Alienware M17x, Intel Core i5 520M 2.4GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 3MB Cache)

Atma, that system uses DDR3 Dual Channel Memory. You would be best served with one of the following combinations.

* 2x 2GB = 4GB
* 2x 4GB = 8GB

The option that Dell offers for 1x 2GB + 1x 4GB would degrade your performance by reducing the memory to single channel speeds.

Personally my recommendation for you is to enjoy the 4GB and smile. For most, adding RAM beyond 4GB at this particular time would have very little impact on the performance of the machine. In fact, in a laptop, it would drain your battery just a little more. I would suggest you save your money.

JonSnow wrote:

I'm sure a knight will come and answer this better. But depending if the ram works together it's best to have two sticks of the same size. I see no downside of having two sticks of the same size, but there are definite upsides in certain situations.

Size matching does matter sometimes, and other times it doesn't. However, the lowest speed DIMM always wins, so speed of the RAM does count in all cases.

DDR Memory doesn't have specific DIMM requirements. The size of DIMMs has no impact.
DDR2 requires pairs of memory in the correct DIMM sockets for dual channel speeds. The pairs must match in capacity.
DDR3 can require either pairs of memory in the correct DIMM sockets for dual channel speeds or it can require three sticks of memory in the correct DIMM sockets for triple channel speeds. All DIMMs must match in capacity.

In addition, for Dual or Triple Channel to work, the RAM must be physically similar. The memory chips must have the same configuration. For the reason, it is wise to pair up memory from the same manufacturer unless you really know what you are doing.

There are of course some loopholes with these, but like I said before, knowing the system makes a large difference in how it will be configured.