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!

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

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.

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.

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!

Should do. A quick check on the PQI website seems to indicate they have the right specs.

I noticed that PQI also has the dual channel matched pair ones. Don't know if new egg does those. The idea is that the 8890 reads from both chips simultaneously thus effectively doubling the memory's bandwidth. What can happen is that if you get two SO-DIMMS from different batches their timing can be ever so slightly out and thus throw the dual channel system into wait states thus hampering its top speed. By buying the matched pair (effectively boards with chips all from the same batch) you don't get (or shouldn't get) any timing differences.

See the top entries on the PQI webpage - they are DUAL CHANNEL matched pairs.
http://www.pqimemory.com/power_memory.asp

You will probably find that even buying the newegg individual ones you are likely to get chips from the same batch. The dual channel matched pair ones are usually more expensive because they have to be matched.

In reality you will probably never even see the effect anyway.

"A little more life out of your 8890..." my 8890's are still powering along. I expect to get at least another 4-5 years of service out of them. Besides the performance of newer laptops just doesn't yet justify the leap forward (nor does running Blusta (ie Vista)).

honestly, I didn't expect such a thorough reply so thanks mate!

I do know about the dual-channel/ matched pair stuff... but since this isn't really a performance rig (anymore) it's not a huge deal if I take a little slowdown. I just wanted to make sure i was buying stuff that would work.

I have to agree about this machine still powering along... it got me through 3 years of graduate architecture school (...intense 3d graphic work with cpu use @ 100% for days on end with ram overflowing)... and since I spent a fortune on it back in the day - has turned out to be a wise investment

though it was never a quiet machine (since the P4 northwood it's based off of is almost the hottest chip ever made) I would like to quiet the machine down some though... the fans run constantly at almost max and it's not because of dust buildup on the HSF. This is basically a home rig used for not much more than internet (well maybe a little photoshopping and HL2) so noise is a concern... I've started another post in general laptops about lappy coolers that blow UP into the 8890's intakes but if there's something else i can do, internally, I"m not opposed to it as i'm no stranger to the inside of a computer

You may find that the noise you have is related to the internal memory fan.

There is a thread about fixing that. Basically the internal fan resonates against the motherboard - hence the loud noise.

If you get some of that thin foamy sheet stuff they wrap around most electronic gear these days, play with an Exacto knife, remove the fan (not with the knife but with screwdriver), cut out a piece of foam with a hole for the air to flow thru then put the whole thing back in place it will quieten it down immensely.

Of course if the CPU/GPU are churning out work then the main fans will be going but they shouldn't be that loud.

yeah, I've already done the memory fan mod but may need to look at it again. I may try to find some really thin neoprene and see if that helps any more.

true,... when i'm working they are not at max speed but shortly after starting rendering at full load on the cpu... those babies spool up and sound like jets...