New Lower Cas Latency DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Laptop Memory Available

For those who may be interested, G.Skill has released DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) laptop memory, w/a lower CL (Cas Latency) of 4.0, and 4-4-4-12 Timing, in 1 gb and 2 gb sticks.

The standard for PC2-667 (PC2 5300) laptop memory is CL5.0, w/timing of 5-5-5-15.

I've been waiting to upgrade my m5550 memory for a few months now. You need to upgrade your BIOS to Rev. 2.07W, for the greater than 2 gb total to work on the m5550 laptop. I've seen the CL4, 2 gb sticks posted on the G.Skill website for awhile now, but couldn't fine them on sale anywhere until this week where I finally saw them on Newegg.com. I immediately purchased the 4 gb package (2x 2046) for $99.99. Boy have memory prices dropped.

While there is no way to manually adjust the laptop memory in the BIOS, the new lower latency memory will be seen by the hardware. You should see a small improvement in the memory performance. Every little bit helps.

So if you intend to upgrade your memory, and you want to squeeze every little bit of performance from your laptop, you may consider it.

I just found out that Patriot too has CL4 memory, but only in 1 gb sticks. I've had Patriot memory fail twice in my m5550, so I wouldn't recommend them personally. I replaced the Patriot w/G.Skill, over a year ago, and haven't had any problems w/the brand yet.

I've got a few months left on my Alienware warranty, so upgrading my cpu from a 2.0 GHz Core 1 Duo to a 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo will have to wait. Hopefully Alienware comes out w/a Nvidia 8 series video upgrade card for the m5550. I want to get at least another year out of my M5550.

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In DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) yes, but I haven't seen it in DDR2-667 (PC2 5300), certainly not in 2 gb sticks, which I was looking for.

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Thx for the update. Hopefully they will come out w/at least a Nvidia 8600 series card upgrade.

The Nvidia 8600 video upgrade, w/a 2.33 GHz Core 2 Dual Processor upgrade, my recent 4 gb (3.25) memory upgrade, and a Solid State HD upgrade, when affordable, should make my m5550 last another year, or two, for the very max.

From what I've been reading, the Quad Core cpu's will be coming out in the third quarter this year for mobiles, so the laptops are fast catching up w/the desktops in regards to the very latest technology, so another year w/my m5550 will be hard to not replace, w/what's coming out.

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Unfortunately I've upgraded the BIOS since I've originally tested my system. The BIOS (2.07W) upgrade allows greater than 2 gb of memory to be used on the m5550, as well as helping w/the heat problems the m5550 has w/some people. I'm curious what Alienware did to help w/the heat issue, detune the m5550 somehow?

With this BIOS upgrade, a HD w/two OS's on it, as well as being almost full, my numbers are either showing a little slower to being a little faster.

The program CPU-Z shows the laptop seeing the new memory (CL4) as 4-4-4-12, and my old (CL5) as 5-5-5-15.

So I guess it's a draw when it comes to using CL4 vs CL5 memory, though I would assume that any memory intensive program would theoretically run slightly better w/the CL4.

The G.Skill, 4 gb (2x2048), CL4 sells for $99.99 and the CL5, for $79.99 at Newegg.

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