Why does my new 533 p-m laptop come with 400mhz ram?

Noticed this on the HP site for the nc6230 laptop. It says it comes with 400mhz ram, and you can install 533 at a later time for a faster fsb. Why would it even come with slower ram in the first place?

It has 2 sticks of this(2x512), and with one slot on the inside, and one slot on the outside, it won't be the easiest to get at. Is this something I should put on my list to upgrade first when it arrives, or does it have the 400mhz ram for a reason?

 

it's cheaper the for the manufacturer to install the slower speed RAM.

it should be easily upgradeable in terms of getting to it; most new laptops are built with easily accessable RAM.

it's not worth it to upgrade from 512 400mhz to 512 533mhz. however, if you upgrade to a larger amount of RAM, like 1 gb, then feel free to get the 533 (i believe for the end user, the 533 is actually cheaper then the 400). you can mix RAM modules, but the faster RAM will clock down the slower RAM's speed.

 

I love how most people that post here are stuck in their own world. While I agree completely with what drumfu says I think it's hilarious how he completely ignores what you said about your laptop having one ram slot tucked away inside the machine. "most new laptops are built with easily accessable RAM" yes, I even copied his spelling error when quoting. This phenomenon of disregarding the original poster is most often seen in the "What should I buy" posts.

But yes, if you got the scratch, upgrade the RAM first. Around ~$90 will buy you a 1gig stick. You can get the RAM for cheaper or you can buy it for more, but I think the RAM at around $90 will be pretty rock solid vs. the $70 RAM. This is due to the way major companies like Samsung sort their RAM(Samsung pretty much supplies the memory chips for most of the major names in after market RAM like kingston etc.). When they come off the line they test them and sort the RAM into piles. The RAM that tests with no errors goes into the more expensive pile. The RAM that doesn't test as well goes in the low cost pile. This is a great oversimplification, but I think you get the idea. I find it's best to get memory that is priced slightly higher than the bottom of the barrel prices. This isn't to say the low end RAM won't work, but a lot of times you'll have to keep returning the low cost ram till you find one that has no errors at all. This happened to me when I bought some really cheap RAM. I had to go through 3 sticks till I found one that had nothing wrong with it. I forget the name of the program that will check your memory for errors, but I'm sure you can do a search for that if you really need it. If you really need to save the cash you can buy the cheap RAM and keep on returning it till you get one that is pristine.

I highly recommend that you buy a 1gig stick and not 2x512. This will allow you room to upgrade to 2gigs of memory down the line. If you do upgrade one stick only, you can always keep one of the old 256 sticks in, so you'll have a total of ~1.2 gigs of memory. Also, the stick that's buried inside your computer . . . well depending on your comfort lvl with digging around your lappie, it shouldn't be too tough to get at. Just pry some plastic loose to get to the insides then unscrew the keyboard probably. Which might sound daunting to you, but it might not.

 

Well, I will probably end up picking a 1 gig stick (60 bucks right now ), but the pain in the ass part is the ram that is inside the laptop. Looking at the manual everything under the keyboard has to come out to get to it. Just praying that I don't break off a plastic tab and void my new 3 year HP warranty

Anyone here know if HP/Compaq is known for plastic clips on newer laptops? The last compaq persario that I popped open was a 800mhz p3, and that was quite old.