R.A.M. swap time, ddr to ddr2, safe idea?

[drewjustforyou]

hello all, thinking its about time to upgrade my laptop (/lol) without replacing it.

only thing im 100% positive i can do to it is to swap out the ram, it should be okay to go from ddr to ddr2 as long as they have the same connector pins right?

my laptop is just over a year old (hp 4307cl), and i just swapped my brothers brand new laptop ram up (2x 256 to 2x1024) from ddr to ddr2, and his computer did fine, of course, its brand new (which makes me wonder why it had less ram in the first place).

i know ddr2 was becoming pretty standard when this computer was produced (late 2005), so, it should be a safe bet to swap up, yes?

 

[Apokalipse]

hello all, thinking its about time to upgrade my laptop (/lol) without replacing it.

only thing im 100% positive i can do to it is to swap out the ram, it should be okay to go from ddr to ddr2 as long as they have the same connector pins right?

They don't. DDR2 RAM cannot be used in DDR1 slots.

top = DDR2
bottom = DDR1

the notch is slightly offset.

 

[drewjustforyou]

darn. and there is no chance that my computer is just telling me i have ddr ram, instead of ddr2? well, im going to go price ddr1 ram, hope it comes in the 1gig sticks.

oh, what are the advantages of ddr2 ram?

 

[Jorsoft]

ddr2 ram is quite a bit faster, up to twice as fast if you use ddr2 800 mhz (compared to ddr's top speed of 400mhz). It's not going to run in your system, though. It physically won't fit into the slots you have. It has more pins and a different design. If your brother's computer is in fact brand new then it used ddr2 ram in the first place.
DDR ram is running about $80 a gig right now on Newegg. Since DDR2 is newer and being manufactured on a much larger scale, it's running about $40-45 a gig.
What are your laptop's specs? Keep in mind if it's a little older you may not be able to go beyond a certain amount or speed of ram. We can help you look at a few options if post specs, brand, and model number, plus what you use it for.

 

[drewjustforyou]

yea, the thought crossed my mind that my brothers computer came with ddr2 ram (Well duh, it mustve, i installed new ddr2 ram for him just 2 weeks ago now). we both have hp laptops, and the only reason i was wondering if i could use ddr2 ram in my computers was due to product specs errors on hps website, they claim his laptop is ddr, when its obviously ddr2. so i thought it since it was a slip up, maybe they screwed up on mine also.

guess im s.o.l. time to keep saving to build a new gaming rig.

 

[drewjustforyou]

so, intel graphics cards are the suckage i understand. i can see that. from what ive heard laptop graphics cards are pretty un-replaceable, is that true? am i really that screwed? 1k that couldve gone to a gaming rig, but then, ive taken about a megabyte of notes from class, guess thats worth, idk 20 bucks online..

 

[Apokalipse]

so, intel graphics cards are the suckage i understand. i can see that. from what ive heard laptop graphics cards are pretty un-replaceable, is that true? am i really that screwed?

yep, laptops are not very upgradable. You might be able to find RAM, or a new hard drive, or possibly a CPU, but that's about it.

 

[drewjustforyou]

salt in the wounds.

 

[Apokalipse]

salt in the wounds.

You can thank the laptop manufacturers for not making things more standard, and instead making as much money as they can by making it all proprietry.

 

[Kubel]

Even if you could physically upgrade to DDR2, latency is doubled compared to DDR, so you would probably notice a performance drop, not increase. Your system wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speed increase either. Not to mention they are completely incompatible.

One great thing about integrated graphics in your notebook is that it consumes much less energy than if you had an upgraded model with X700 graphics. So in reality, you will get better battery life, less heat, and less noise. Battery life, low temperature, and silence are all very desirable in a laptop.

If you have the money, you *can* upgrade to a system with better graphics if you really wanted to. But it would involve completely disassembling your laptop, removing the old motherboard, installing a new motherboard (which can cost hundreds of dollars), and hoping the thing gets put back together correctly. And all you would get out of it is an outdated graphics card.

Your best bet is to craigslist your current laptop, and then take the money you can get from it and put it into a newer model.

Laptops don't make good gaming rigs. Even if you get a powerful machine, it's really quite difficult to pwn using a touchpad. And if you get an external mouse, your practically desk-bound. Might as well invest in a desktop.

It's actually more economical to get a low-end integrated graphics notebook for mobility (about $500) and a high-end gaming desktop for power (about $1500) than it is to get a high-end dedicated graphics notebook ($2000) and a docking station ($200). The desktop can be heavily upgraded and modified, the laptop cannot. Laptops also have a higher rate of failure (20%) and damage/theft/destruction than desktops.