Being a person who likes fiddling with stuff I recently ordered some additional random access memory (RAM) for a laptop. This laptop uses a Intel® Core™ processor Duo T2300E (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB)and the type of memory called DDR-2 SDRAM 533/667 SODIMM.
What the heck does that mean?
DDR-2 is Double Data Rate version 2. It's not really version 2 (that's just my shorthand) - the 2 refers to "two synchronous", meaning it tranfers data on the rising and falling edge of the clock. Memory design is constantly evolving and if you wanted to know more about DDR-2 this Wikipedia article is a good resource.
SDRAM stands for Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory. It's synchronized with the system clock.
The 533 refers to the bus speed that the microprocessor uses to talk to the memory. In this case it's 533 Mhz. This particular laptop has a 667 Mhz system bus, and could use DDR-2 667 SODIMM as well. Since Dell shipped it with one 533 Mhz SODIMM there's no point in adding a second 667 Mhz SODIMM since it will default to the slower speed of the two SODIMM's. The system bus is also called the front side bus (FSB). It's the bus the central processing unit (CPU) uses to talk to the RAM. The FSB speed is important in determining the overall speed of a computer. 667 Mhz sounds fast to me, but Intel has 1066 FSB CPU's available for laptops today.
SODIMM is an acronym for the type of random access memory (RAM) used in laptops and stands for Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module.
Asleep yet?
So anyway....I ordered a 512 Mb SODIMM made by K-Byte from an eBay seller. It seemed like an amazingly good deal - about half what I could get the chip for anywhere else. It came (don't you love getting stuff from UPS or FedEx?) and I popped it in. It ran great for about 5 minutes and then my computer flaked out and shut down.
The seller was very nice about the whole thing and shipped me another SODIMM about an hour after I contacted him. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this new chip will play nice.
Side note - Speaking of getting stuff delivered from UPS or FedEx...I had a a double play on Tuesday. FedEx and UPS showed up at the same time. The UPS guy has my RAM and the FedEx guy has a new Sony Ericsson W300i quad-band Walkman with EDGE phone we got Rachel for her 21st birthday. I was in consumer heaven...
