Howzit
So I need some assistance as I’m not too clued up with upgrading the ram in my Laptop.
So I’m fixing a old work pc for the home/office and home schooling and I cleaned it up reinstalled everything and cloned the old hard drive to a SSD and now it goes like better than new. While it was all opened I took a picture of the ram chip inside and now I want to know what is the type I should be buying and how do I check what the max it can take, I see a spare slot next to the chip so do I have to get the same or doesn’t it need to match ect. On the black plastic part I see it says DDR4 RVS 12V
Do you mind sharing the exact model of the Laptop. From its documentation you will see what ram can be used. Once you know that, source new ram and if you cant find the exact same module that is in currently, consider ordering 2 new modules that is the same. Ram tends not to play together well if they are not identical twins…
You can mix and match, but is like mixing different panels in one string, some spec of the one will limit the others performance.
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That I will have to go check. Is there not somewhere on the machine I can search its hardware settings. Is it better to get one bigger module or two smaller ones.
Two smaller ones if you want to get technical. But one big one can also work fine. The added benefit of using two smaller ones would most probably not be seen in normal everyday use of a laptop.
It will be used for CAD once a week hence the reason I want to upgrade the RAM, but rest of the time it wont do hectic stuff
found this which helps with CMD to find out ram type speed ect
It is better to get matching modules as Jaco mentions, but you can try your luck. Most of the time it can work, but just with the slowest speed.
You also get dual channel and single channel memory. A dual channel module will work in dual channel mode with just the one memory slot populated, but if it single channel then it will only run in dual channel mode when both slots are populated. If you have a 4GB module and add a 8GB then part of it will be in dual channel and part will not, and you can get blue screen issues.
You also get different types (DDR3, DDR4 or DDR3L) and your notebook will only work with the correct matching one.
If you have a branded notebook then you need to get memory spesificly for that notebook. So for instance Kingston will make a spesific 8GB DDR4 SODIMM for DELL and another one for HP and you cannot use the HP one in Dell (most of the time).
The best option is to look for memory for your notebook model.
Crucial has a website where you can type in the model number, and they will suggest RAM, an SSD, etc that is known to work with that hardware. Of course that might not be your preference for hardware supplier, but I’ve found it to be pretty useful. Especially with Dells, which can by picky about what RAM they like…
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