Need some advice on memory upgrade

[Vedalkin]

OK, so it's my B-day tomorrow, and my wife asked me what I want. After much debate I decided to upgrade the RAM in my laptop.

It's a Toshiba Satellite A135-4666 (I know, not the greatest but it runs great, and was on sale)

OK, so I go to crucial.com and run a scan and it tells me this> http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=8C673F1B31D926C3

Basically it states that Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-4200 with a maximum of 1GB per slot. However, currently installed memory is DDR PC2-5300 (I also confirmed this by pulling one of the sticks out personally)

I plan on buying a set of 2 RAM modules at 1gig each.

My question is, do I get DDR2 PC2-4200 • CL=4 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-533 • 1.8V •

OR

DDR2 PC2-5300 • CL=5 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-667 • 1.8V


The only difference that I can see is CL5 on the PC2-5300, but it's DDR2-667. The PC2-4200 has CL4 but is DDR2-533.

I know the difference is probly minimal, but I want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it, so thus my dilemma.

What confuses me is that the laptop currently has PC2-5300, yet it has the slower CL of 5. My laptop has a Front Side Bus of only 533 MHz, so it isn't taking advantage of the 667MHz that the PC2-5300 memory has.

From what I can gather, the PC2-4200 has a CL of 4, and is 533MHz.
So given the fact my FSB on my laptop is only 533MHz to begin with, would it make sense to get the PC2-4200 over the PC2-5300 just for the better CL, because both will run at 533MHz anyway, ? or am I way off?

 

[o1die]

Your laptop has an older chipset on the motherboard; it runs at a slow speed. You can use either speed of memory; Fry's.com and newegg are pretty cheap, and the Fry's stores locations are rock bottom when on sale. I usually buy crucial or corsair. Before changing, you can run cpuid, a free download, and see what timings it detects.

 

[Vedalkin]

I already found a pretty good deal on either set (33 bux for a pair of 1gig sticks) and I am aware the laptop can run either speed.

I have CPU-Z(have used if for a long time) and as I stated my post, my FSB is 533MHz

Thanx, but I was kinda hoping to get an answer for the final question in my post however.

So given the fact my FSB on my laptop is only 533MHz to begin with, would it make sense to get the PC2-4200 over the PC2-5300 just for the better CL, because both will run at 533MHz anyway?

 

[smartel7070]

In your situation the real world advantage of a lower CL is minimal to none ... so go with the least expensive.