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Crucial 512mb PC2100 SODIMM |
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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Wednesday, 20 June 2007 |
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Page 1 of 2
Thanks to Crucial for the product sample.
Ever since I bought my Inspiron 8200 I've been using it mostly for Photoshop, with a little Illustrator on a side, an occasional DVD, and virtually no gaming (these are the horrors of college). Now it gets even better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) with our collective foray into the world of Cinema4D. When it comes to larger files, as is always the case, the 'puter requires unthinkable amounts of memory if you are to spend more time working than waiting for the rendering to occur. It even got to the point where 640mb (the 128mb standard along with the Kingston 512mb SODIMM reviewed a while back) seemed to hang.
So I decided it was time for the final upgrade. With a maximum capacity of 1024mb, I was going to turn my Dell into a real monster. This time Crucial decided to help out by sending over one of their 512mb SODIMMs, the largest capacity currently available for notebooks. Reason being? For starters, packing 512mb onto 8 chips (as opposed to the 16 found in regular DIMMs) means 64mb per module. That's not exactly cheap, hence the $200 price tag, about twice the price of a DIMM, most likely due to the double capacity per chip. And of course this would equate to a 1GB DIMM in terms of density, so you can get a good price estimate there.
The packaging was good enough to survive a 2nd day air FedEx delivery, which came in an envelope. Crucial's cardboard box is very sturdy, though I personally preferred their earlier inclusion of foam pieces. The contents are no-nonsense: the memory in an anti-static bag (with the appropriate warning label of course) and a guide with tips/instructions/precautions in 8 different languages. Most of it is common sense, but try telling that to Joe Six-pack. Anyway, onto the memory at hand.
On the front is the usual Crucial sticker, which voids your (lifetime) warranty if removed, so I suggest you keep it on. Besides, heatspreaders on laptop memory are useless, since there's really no airflow inside the compartment (well, at least not on my 8200). In the lower middle is the model number. I wasn't able to see the markings on the chips themselves but that's not important, as there's another sticker on the back that tells you everything you want to know. The only markings bearing significance here are: 512mb, DDR, 266mhz (PC2100), and CL2.5. I have no idea what the others mean.
From the top down, we have the 128mb stick that came standard with the Dell (Samsung chips, the PCB may or may not be generic), the 512mb Kingston I reviewed earlier with the questionable heatspreader, and finally the Crucial stick we have today. Although you can't make a comparison with the Kingston, you can see how much busier the Crucial PCB is than the that of the Samsung. I've said this many times before and I'll say it again: the reason most generic memory sucks isn't because of the chips (which are produced by a handful of manufacturers: Samsung, Infineon, Micron, etc), but because of the poor quality and sub-par standards of the PCB on which they're mounted, along with the low grade resistor caps and other electrical components.
Picking out the right memory from Crucial is an incredibly simple process. Just select the manufacturer, the product line, the model number and voila, an assortment of memory options magically appears before your eyes. For those with DIY systems, you can also search by memory type. Installation is fairly simple, on my laptop at least. Just unscrew both sides of the cover, lift it off, snap the modules into place, replace the cover, and you're done.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 June 2007 )
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