Lenovo or Kingston, Corsair SODIMM

[whc]

Is it reallt worth paying doubble price for Lenovo SODIMMS, I can get a Kingston Value PC-5300, 1024MB DDR2, for about half the price of the same kind of SODIMMS but Lenovo branded. What to go for, isn't it Samsung chips they both uses???

[pianowizard]

It's definitely not worth paying more for Lenovo sticks. Kingston sticks are just as good.

[rkawakami]

Generally any laptop manufacturer branded memory will cost more than what you can find in "aftermarket" offerings. They are trying to make money on them after all. Kingston is a good company but I don't think that they exclusively use Samsung parts.

As far as is it "worth the extra money", probably not. I would say only if you plan on overclocking the memory is the extra cost meaningful. That tends to be one of the main reasons why module makers charge extra for their "performance" memories. It cost them more to test and sort out the faster parts.

[whc]

Ok, thanks both, I will then save the money, and probely go for some Kingston SODIMMS, the cost is less than half of the Lenovo.

Now I am goiun to ask a stupid question, but just to be sure, the Z61m dosn't run dual channel memory setup when using the two memory slots, right???

[rkawakami]

My understanding is that two memory modules are REQUIRED to run dual-channel.

Hmm... just re-read your question... are you asking if it will automatically run dual-channel if both slots are populated? If so, I'm not sure. Don't have any systems with this feature nor know enough about it. Anybody else?

[whc]

Don't think it is dual channel, nothing on this matter in Lenovo's website...Just wondered since it then would be best with exact the same kind of DIMMS, and then the Kingstons would maybe make the system a bit unstable...

But nevermind, will go for the cheaper Kingston SODIMMS, can't wait to get som more memory, just as normal windows use, it almost uses 1GB mamory, making the harddrive do more work...

[jkahng]

I also have a Z61m that came with 512megs standard(nanya chips).
i bought a stick of 1gig samsung ram (samsung sells retail sticks in korea... they have VERY good A/S here)
total of 1.5gigs

when i run cpuid, the status is "dual channel". i read somewhere on this forum that this is asyncronous dual channel vs. the syncronous dual channel that has performance gains.

all in all, you should have no problem using the kingston stick. and even if you bought off ibm, there is no guarantee that you will get the same maker of memory on the stick. ibm uses many different makers.

however, there might be a compatibility problem with the current stick and the kingston stick but highly unlikely.

fyi, upgrading the ram on the Z61M requires taking apart the palmrest.

I plan to upgrade to 1+2gigs when 2gig stick prices drop.
right now, you can buy 1gig samsung sticks here for about $65.00. hope that drop in price also triggers some drop in 2gig sticks soon.
hope the upgrade goes well.

Jkahng