Windows 7: RAM timings vs. Voltage, and ssd questions

ionbasa · 18 Nov 2012

Well I ended up buying a new laptop, check specs.
It only has 4GB of RAM, and has some strange timings:

RAM timings vs. Voltage, and ssd questions-capture.png

RAM timings vs. Voltage, and ssd questions-capture2.png

Now, since this laptop has an APU (CPU+GPU in one die) , the GPU can greatly benifit from faster RAM timings.
So shopping around on amazon, I found this:
Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics Extreme Low Voltage 30nm SODIMM 8 Dual Channel Kit DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM MV-3T4G3D/US: Electronics
and
Amazon.com: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory (CMSX8GX3M2A1600C9): Computers & Accessories

Now the Corsair has better timings, 9-9-9-24, but the Samsung has 11-11-11-28.
Also the Samsung is 1.35 volts and is made using a 30nm process.

So which one should I buy?

Also this laptop has a chip set that supports SATA 3 and is using AHCI, so any recommendations out there for a ssd, 256 gb would be preferred, also it has to be reliable as I do work with large video files,CAD , and some virtual machines.

bobafetthotmail · 19 Nov 2012

That's normal. CPU-z only shows half of what you should expect because it looks at the ram's clock speed, not the DDR3 ram bank's clock speed (which is double that of the ram chips on it as DDR3 stands for "double data rate 3").
Double of 800 Mhz is 1600 mhz, which is the actual DDR3 speed the banks run at. And it is the speed expected from ram marked as PC 12800.

The difference between those rams linked is that the latter uses far less volts, thus less power and heat and longer battery life (theoretically anyway), and this comes at the price of slightly worse performance, as in the timings for ram banks of the same capacity, lower is better/faster.

Layback Bear · 19 Nov 2012

I would use the ram with the lower volts. Lower volts equals less heat which is very important in a laptop. Presuming the cpu and motherboard will accept the ram. I don't believe you would ever notice the difference in ram speeds.

whs · 19 Nov 2012

Regarding the SSD I would recommend this one: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256N/AM 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Notebook Upgrade Kit

But be on the lookout for sales which Newegg very often do - especially now with Black Friday coming up.

Layback Bear · 19 Nov 2012

If you can find the SSD that whs has posted at that price jump on it. They won't be long before they are all grabbed up.

Indianatone · 19 Nov 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by Layback Bear

If you can find the SSD that whs has posted at that price jump on it. They won't be long before they are all grabbed up.

Yep shows out of stock.

Layback Bear · 20 Nov 2012

Keep looking. It's been reported as a very good SSD.

Windows 7: RAM timings vs. Voltage, and ssd questions

RAM timings vs. Voltage, and ssd questions problems?