Can my laptop support 1 x 8 gb rather than 2 x 4gb?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
R

rapiddevil

Honorable
Apr 12, 2013
14
0
10,510
Hello all,

My current emachines G640 supports 8gb max (in 2 slots) of RAM. It currently has 2 x 1gb (2gb in total). I've been looking to upgrade and found a special offer on 8gb sticks (unfortunately not 4's).

My question is will it be able to run 1 x 8gb in 1 slot and take the other one out? It's unclear whether each slot supports a max of 4gb or whether it's purely about the total capacity of 8gb.

(I understand the duel channel concept but that's not of concern here).

Thanks in advance.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Azn Cracker

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Jul 28, 2009
2,053
0
20,160
[strike]Yes it will work unless it states specifically in the mobo info that it can't. I don't think that would be the case though. [/strike] But like you said, it wont be running dual channel. Performance should be about the same though
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rapiddevil

Honorable
Apr 12, 2013
14
0
10,510


Thanks for that. I have no idea if there are any exemptions on the motherboard....is there any way I could find out if that were the case other than buying and testing the RAM?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Azn Cracker

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Jul 28, 2009
2,053
0
20,160


Yea i would open up the computer and find the motherboard model and then looking up the specs for it. If you dont want to open up the pc you can use a program such as CPU-Z to find the model number.


---

sorry just noticed that this was a laptop. Use the cpu-z program since it would be hard to open up a laptop
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Azn Cracker

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Jul 28, 2009
2,053
0
20,160
Actually disregard what I said earlier. If you put an 8gb memory in there only 4 gb will be utilized. So it won't be worth it. Sorry for the confusion. It was just that some board can support that, but after a little of research i found out that a majority cant.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rapiddevil

Honorable
Apr 12, 2013
14
0
10,510


Thanks very much for putting this correction on quickly. although it's academic now i'm running windows 7 at 64 bit - I did enough research to find out that 32 bit won't allow upwards of 4gb. I always try my best to look for the answers first myself and then post when I hit a brick wall!!

i'll probably download that program you suggested and double check what the motherboard says. i'll post back here if I manage to get that far.

Thanks again.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

rapiddevil

Honorable
Apr 12, 2013
14
0
10,510


the website doesn't seem to let me paste the jpeg of the CPU-z results....but they look something like this:

manufacturer: emachines
model: G640
chipset: AMD 785GX
southbridge: AMD SB850

so is the chipset the motherboard model number?? how can I find out from here whether it will support the 8gb in 1 slot?

Thanks in advance.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Azn Cracker

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Jul 28, 2009
2,053
0
20,160

hmm thats odd. I think the program doesnt ID laptop mobo's correctly. On my desktop, it shows the model number. However im on my laptop right now and mine says VAIO for the model.

If I were you, i would not risk wasting money and getting the one stick of memory. Just spend a little more and get the 2x 4gb.

Also you can always just stick with 4gb of ram. It should be enough unless you are using some memory intensive programs
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom