New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

maxing out memory in an 8890

post #1 of 24
12/14/05 at 8:50pm
Thread Starter 
Hi guys,
Just some feedback for those that want to max out their 8890's with 2GB of memory.

If you are planning to do this I would suggest doing it soon as the memory sticks for this beast are starting to become rather hard to find at decent prices.

The most compatible part you can get is one with a CL=2.5 which is the same timing as the 512MB chips as shipped from Sager (Apacer branded).
Most current SO-DIMMS are CL=3.

The parts I just put in are 2 x 1GB KingMax PC3200 DDR SO-DIMM
(product code: MSXD42DKI)

Newegg has removed them from their stock list and the only place I found that had them was www.memory4less.com.
One good thing about these guys was they ship internationally. (Shipping was faster from the US to Australia than I get state to state - go figure).
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 24
12/15/05 at 8:23am
Thank you for the informations ...
I'm interested.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 24
12/16/05 at 5:18am

Value for money

Hi Aussie,

I am interested although I doubt if this brings me enough value for money.

I run several memory intensive applications and games. During gamse (e.g. Civ 4) my system frequently crashes to desktop, reporting RAM problems. Memory tests do not reveal any problems, so I think it is related to high temperature (also after I cleaned out my system).

Ca you say what kind of performance increases you have noticed and if you think temperature related problems will get less or worse?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 24
12/16/05 at 6:50am
Thread Starter 
The keyboard certainly feels hotter as more heat has to be dissapated via the heat spreader (which is under the keyboard).
We are in the middle of summer here so ambient temps are about 30-35 deg C. The fans are on most of the time with mobmeter showing 53-55 deg C consistently.

My main reason for maxing out memory was not so much performance but more to do with running two virtual machines under vmware. They chew up about 350MB and 200MB each. My typical usage without those is about 600-700 MB which means as soon as they load the system was starting to swap.

I would only max out if you really need the extra memory. Virtual machines and video editing are the two biggest memory hogs, so if you don't use them you can live with 1GB quite well.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 24
12/22/05 at 2:07am
Hey, I found this at newegg, and this at memory4less. The price is significantly lower at newegg if they're, indeed, both the same product.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 24
12/26/05 at 6:39am
Thread Starter 
They are the same product.
I don't know what NewEgg was doing but last time I looked they said the product was no longer available.
As it turned out more searching turned up the Memory4less item which was at the same price as NewEggs was, so I ordered them (they also ship internationally which NewEgg doesn't). Just afterwards the Memory4less price jumped to $293.

Stuffed if I know what is going on. Anyway I have the memory installed an working well. If you can get it from NewEgg do so as I don't know what is going on.

Good find aws316. Thanks.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 24
12/29/05 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
Memory4less prices are back to the $US132 level again.
Go figure.
Maybe it was a supply problem...
Either way get 'em whilst they are going.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 24
4/3/06 at 5:59pm
There is a user review at NewEgg stating that the memory is only 2.5 latency at DDR333 sped, the memory is rated at 3-3-3-8 at DDR400.

The listing at Memory4Less is no longer valid.

This is what I'm going with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custra...82E16820211133
A reviewer clocked it at 2.5-3-3-7 at 200MHz (DDR400).
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 24
4/4/06 at 7:21pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the update phubar.
(Also thanks for your sig regarding never installing MS Bluetooth with Billionton's drivers).
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 24
9/24/06 at 10:56pm
Well, that actually turned out rather badly...

I ordered a pair of 1GB sticks back in April and put them in. Worked great, my 8890 flew. Then 4 months later, in August, one of the sticks went bad... Which caused an unrecoverable hard drive error which eventually cost me me all my data on my drive. (I had a RAID-0 array, recovery software can't deal with the raided drives...)

Got my 8890 back running again, ordered a replacement memory stick from NewEgg. Went with the same product, since matched sticks are optimal for Dual-Channel.

Well, without telling me or changing the listing on their website, NewEgg sent me a different AData memory stick, with a 3 CAS latency rating instead of 2.5. Apparently I got the 'replacement product' that is supposedly equivalent to what I ordered - except for the one feature that I specifically wanted.

So:

NewEgg:
AData:
My consumer experience:
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 24
9/24/06 at 11:09pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry to hear you had that sort of drama.

Also note to phubar: make sure data backed up on a daily basis...
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 24
3/8/07 at 8:56am

Just ordered two sticks of PQI SODIMM

I switched to Vista and belief that I can increase performance by upgrdaing to 2GB of RAM.

I just ordered two sticks of: PQI 1GB DDR 400 (PC 3200) 200-Pin SO-DIMM, CL 2.5, Unbuffered. Total cost: $180 ($90 per stick)

Did I do right?
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 24
3/8/07 at 9:31pm
Thread Starter 
did well hanko
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 24
3/22/07 at 10:25am

Bigger and Faster Ram

I waited for two weeks, the PQI memory remained out of stock and nobody could tell me for sure how long it was going to last


So, I replaced my original Apacer sticks (2*512MB) with two 1GB sticks from MDT. Vista reports a memory speed improvement from 4.2 (Apacer) to 4.8 (MDT).

I am happy after all!

Reply
Reply
post #15 of 24
3/22/07 at 10:52pm
Thread Starter 
Double plus good to quote George Orwell
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 24
7/3/07 at 10:29pm
Love the improvement i've had with the upgrade from 1gb to 2gb. Went with the PQI ram. now, working in Google Earth is becoming increasingly more enjoyable!
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 24
11/21/07 at 1:11pm
Hey, I know this is an old thread but I'm hoping someone can clear this up for me. I'm looking to max out my RAM in my 8890 from 1GB to 2GB's. But I read in the user manual (page 6-14) that you can only upgrade 333Mhz RAM to 2GB's and if you use 400Mhz RAM you are limited to 1GB. Does anyone know if this is true? I think I have 400Mhz RAM in there now, and I don't think I'd want to put in slower RAM. I'm also assuming that 400DDR RAM means 400Mhz RAM. Is that true? Here's the RAM I was thinking about purchasing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141208
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 24
11/22/07 at 12:29am
Thread Starter 
That should be ok.
I did a quick look at it.
The 333MHz issue is from the older model 8880 and they haven't updated the user manual.

I like quite a few 8890 owners have been running 400MHz x 2 Gb for some time and it works really well.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 24
11/24/07 at 1:18pm
Thanks for the quick reply Aussie! I figured it was something like that since there were quite a few threads about putting in 400Mhz RAM.
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 24
1/22/08 at 5:49pm

my 8890 ram upgrade...

i've decided to go with a pair of these and see if I can't squeeze a little more life outta my 8890

will they work?

Proust!
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home