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    Mismatch memory size on old laptop

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by homestyle, Dec 13, 2011.

  1. homestyle

    homestyle Newbie

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    I have a Dell Inspiron 5160 with 512mb (256 x 2) of ram.

    If I remove 1 stick and add a 1gb stick, would ram speed not be ideal?

    Is this dual channel or single channel?
     
    homestyle, Dec 13, 2011
    #1
  2. whitrzac

    whitrzac The orange end is cold...

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    its fine....
     
    whitrzac, Dec 13, 2011
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  3. makaveli72

    makaveli72 Eat.My.Shorts

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    Yea that should work fine;

    But I believe for dual channel to work correctly the chips need to be the same size. I could be wrong though.
     
    makaveli72, Dec 13, 2011
    #3
  4. Fat Dragon

    Fat Dragon Just this guy, you know?

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    I upgraded one stick on my Inspiron 1420 and everest counted it as if there were three sticks - two 1 GB's in dual-channel and one 1 GB in single-channel. Not sure if that actually reflected the reality of the situation, but that was the word.

    Two questions:

    - What kind of RAM does the Inspiron 5160 use? DDR or DDR2? If it's DDR did they even make 1 GB DIMMs? Make sure you're getting compatible RAM before you buy something that doesn't even work in your computer.

    - Is an older machine like that even going to support dual-channel memory use? When did dual-channel become a thing in RAM usage anyway? I remember hearing about it in 2007 but I don't know how long it had been around by then.
     
    Fat Dragon, Dec 13, 2011
    #4
  5. jimbob83

    jimbob83 Notebook Evangelist

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    According to the memory upgrade advisor on Crucial's website, the 5160 uses DDR memory and does not support dual channel. There are 1GB dimms available, Crucial has them on their website here: Computer memory upgrades for Dell Inspiron 5160 Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

    I don't mean to sound like I'm pushing Crucial, I just find their memory advisor to be a very useful tool. I'm sure other manufacturers will have the dimms as well. In fact I have a non-Crucial 1GB DDR dimm that I bought from a seller on ebay in my old HP DV1000, in the same configuration the OP is considering (1GB + 256MB).
     
    jimbob83, Dec 14, 2011
    #5
  6. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Meaker@Sager, Dec 14, 2011
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