Importance of Matched Ram pairs?

[Admiral_Ackbar6]

Heya guys, hows it going? I am looking to buy a new Dell D630 Latitude Laptop. I would love to have 2 GB of RAM for the machine, but dell wanted to charge an extra $135 to go from 1 GB to 2 GB of ram, which I find absurd, since you can pick up a 1 GB DDR2-667 SODIMM from Newegg for less than $40. So, I was wondering, how important is it to have 2 of the same batch of memory modules? So I go ahead, spend the extra $25 at Dell to get the 2 512MB sticks exchanged to one 1GB, and then buy another 1 GB stick of Geil, Patriot, or Kingston from Newegg? Should I take the plunge and just spend the premium at Dell? Or should I just through out the Dell memory and buy a 2 GB kit from Newegg? What would you guys recommend? Thanks.

~~~>Andrew

 

[nickr336]

As long as it's the same memory type, it doesn't matter. When you get your laptop, open it up and look at the RAM. You want to do this just in case DELL made a mistake. If it says DDR2-667, go to Newegg and buy another stick. Simple as that.

 

[Admiral_Ackbar6]

Ok, thanks for letting me know. I just remember when I was building my rig a few years back, everyone said it was super important to buy the ram in matched pairs, guess it doesn't matter too much now then.

 

[ausch30]

That's how OEM's make money because for every 1 person that realizes he's getting ripped off for an upgrade there are dozens of people that don't. nickr336 is right just look at the RAM and try to match as much as possible in this order (speed, latency, brand) you could also use Crucial's advisor to determine what memory you have and what to match it with.

 

[Falken699]

Look at the serial numbers on the sticks. If they are cousins, the numbers are almost sequential, meaning the same wafer, and potentially the same electrical resistance.

All this BS is only for people who try and hobby OC down to the very last MHZ and compete with friends. If you mild OC you don't even have to bother other than matching speed, brand, and bin. Most people don't even bother matching brand, as they are mostly from the same few fabs anyway (Micron for example).

 

[Admiral_Ackbar6]

Ok, thanks for the advice! I will order the machine with 1 GB stick then, and try to match the ram with the companiy that fabricated the chips. Thanks again.