The typical computer user’s ideal laptop would fall into one of the two most popular categories – ultraportable or mainstream. Ultraportables are pretty and trim, generally weigh less than 4 pounds, and can be carried almost anywhere. Mainstream laptops deliver a good balance of portability and power. Between the different manufacturers, models, and sub-models, consumers are faced with a variety of laptops to choose from, varying greatly in price, features, design, and performance.

Performance, dictated by the quality and power of the components, was once the major factor in choosing a mainstream laptop. For ultraportables, performance was not a selling point, because the small sizes did not permit parts that ran faster. Today performance is less of an issue, so most laptops of either type don’t need to be pushed to their limits. Although the gigahertz rating and the amount of RAM included in a laptop are still important purchasing factors, other elements like looks, multimedia features, and cheaper prices are more significant than ever to consumers. Here we’ll look at some of the hottest ultraportable and mainstream laptops on the market, and show how they are selling more than just power and speed.

Not too long ago, laptops were considered underpowered, poor relations of desktop computers. Yea, they were a great portable solution to moving your work around with you, but nobody expected them to be powerhouses. Usually, buyers found themselves paying a premium of $2000 or more for mediocre components, limited features, and so-so battery life. As far as styling went, you could forget pretty. Most laptops came in black, or black, like the old Model T Fords.

Times have changed! Now, laptops have become the primary computer for many people (I am writing this article on my laptop which is my work computer), and buyers demand more. The market has responded, and manufacturers are now offering laptops with a wide range of features for under $1000. If the laptop is selling for over $1500, it had better have a high-definition optical drive. Mainstream systems are packed with cool and powerful components but now rarely weigh over 6 pounds, while the ultraportable laptop field is bubbling with innovative features, from hyper-thin optical drives and LED backlit screens, to super small hard drives. Design-wise, laptop manufacturers are pulling out all the stops, with curving chassis, innovative alloy frames, and a plethora of color choices.

Mainstream laptops offer the best blend of features and portability. They used to be 14 inch screen models with limited resolution, but now offer high resolution screens in a variety of formats and sizes. Using smaller components and 13.3 inch widescreens is making the units lighter,, and even 15.4 inch widescreens can be used without going over the 6 pound level. Resolutions are now being advertised as “HD ready,” where the most generic resolution meets the 720p criteria.

Almost all mainstream laptops now offer built-in web cams. When is comes to still pictures, webcams give poor resolution compared with most digital cameras, but that doesn’t really matter because they are most useful for videoconferencing. Some units are even offering fingerprint readers for personalized security. And today’s mainstream laptops can utilize a single hard drive that can hold up to 320GB of data.

Whichever you decide on, a sleek ultraportable like the new Apple MacBook Air, or a mainstream laptop like the HP Pavilion dv6500t, make sure to get the maximum amount of RAM, either from the factory, or aftermarket from a reputable seller, and you will be happy with your purchase for a long time.

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It has been a buyer’s market for premium DDR2 memory lately. Your choices range from modestly over-clocking memory modules, which command only a slight premium over value memory, to cutting-edge modules with high heat spreaders that can hit clock speeds up to 533 MHz (DDR2-1066) and require voltages higher than 1.8 volts. Recently, we’ve seen DDR2 modules from Corsair rated to use as much as 2.3 volts.

What are the advantages of premium memory? High-end DRAM chips are bin-sorted, a term used by manufacturers to refer to sorting chips that can run at differing speeds into “speed bins” which hit higher frequencies and voltages. These chips can run at lower latency timing than standard DRAM. Finding exactly the right timing settings can be tough. It’s often a trial-and-error process that involves many test, reset, and reboot cycles.

Most standard or value-grade memory won’t run at the lower latency at which premium-grade memory runs. For DDR2, that currently means latencies lower than the standard 5-5-5-15 timings.

If DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 doesn’t make sense, then read on to learn how to decode it and why it should matter to you. But first let’s clarify how memory works.

Memory accesses don’t happen in one step. Memory is laid out on a chip in rows and columns, which require repeated pulses of electricity, referred to as “strobing,” to reach each location. When memory is accessed, each cycle of strobing takes a fixed amount of time, explained as follows:

tCL Column address strobe (CAS) latency; or the number of clock cycles required to access a specific column of data. (The t prefix refers to time.)

tRCD Row address strobe (RAS)-to-CAS delay; or the number of clock cycles needed between a row address strobe and a column address strobe.

tRP RAS pre-charge; or the number of clock cycles needed to close one row of memory and open another.

tRAS The number of clock cycles needed to access data in a specific row of RAM.

Now let’s break down the particular DRAM label above. 800 is the effective clock speed in megahertz. That’s the actual clock speed multiplied times data per clock cycle (200 MHz [for DDR2-800] X 4 [4 samples for DDR2 per clock cycle]). DDR2-800 has a maximum bandwidth of 6.4 GBps. “5-5-5-15” is referring to a tCL of 5, tRCD of 5, tRP of 5, and tRAS of 15.

Because latency is measured in clock cycles, the smaller the numbers, the faster it is. Therefore less time is required for memory accesses. The time is measured in nano seconds, with a typical system making millions of memory accesses every second. Latency and memory speed trade off with each other. For example, the same DDR2-667 memory module can run at 333 MHz with latencies of 5-5-5-15, or at DDR2-533 speed at 266 MHz with latencies of 4-4-4-11. Since higher clock frequencies represent smaller time intervals, the total time is basically the same for both these speed settings.

The serious over-clockers out there will want to push their memory speeds up to 1,100 MHz or more. Over-clockers also need to run their memory at higher voltages, so it’s important to have a good motherboard with a beefy voltage regulator, and a BIOS setup that lets you tweak your memory settings. For an example of a motherboard that allows very high memory clockings, look up the eVGA nForce 650i Ultra motherboard.

What you get with premium memory is the ability to run at higher clock speeds and lower latencies. If your applications are sensitive to memory performance, premium memory can pay off. Games, 3G rendering, and media trans-coding are all sensitive to memory latency. A typical users’ regular web browsing, office applications, and streaming media typically are less sensitive and will work just fine using standard RAM memory.

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DDR3 is the next-generation evolution of DDR and newer DDR2 memory technology that will break the Gigahertz speed barrier for memory speed.DDR3 memory comes with a promise of a power consumption reduction of 30% compared to current DDR2 modules, due to DDR3’s 1.5 V supply voltage, compared to DDR2’s 1.8 V or DDR-1’s 2.5 V. This supply voltage works well with the latest fabrication technology used for most DDR3 chips. Some manufacturers further propose to use “dual-gate” transistors to reduce leakage of current.

DDR3 is an industry standard technology defined by JEDEC, who is the semiconductor standardization body of the Electronic Industries Alliance. About 300 member companies representing every segment of the computer memory industry actively participate to develop standards to meet the industry needs.

DDR3 memory features higher data bandwidths, faster speeds, lower voltage and power consumption, and improved thermal performance. Lower power consumption will allow longer battery life for laptops. DDR3 memory is engineered to support the next-generation quad-processors that require higher data bandwidth to enable higher levels of performance.

The main benefit of DDR3 comes from the higher bandwidth made possible by DDR3’s 8 bit deep pre-fetch buffer, whereas DDR2’s is 4 bits, and DDR-1’s is 2 bits deep. Theoretically, these modules could transfer data at an effective clock rate of 800–1600 MHz (using both edges of a 400–800 MHz I/O clock), compared to DDR2’s current range of effective 400–800 MHz (200–400 MHz clock) or DDR-1’s range of 200–400 MHz (100–200 MHz). To date, such bandwidth requirements have been mainly found in the graphics market, where fast transfer of information between frames is required.

Prototypes were announced in early 2005, and products started appearing on the market as of mid-2007, in the form of motherboards based on Intel’s P35 “Bearlake” chipset and memory DIMMs at speeds up to DDR3 1600Mhz. DDR3 launched for these special Intel chipset-based desktops in July 2007, and notebook and server platforms will follow in 2008 and 2009. AMD’s roadmap shows they will also support DDR3 as the new memory technology continues its market ramp-up in 2008.

DDR3 memory modules come in 1066MHz, 1333MHz and 1600MHz speeds (data rate), with 1066MHz and 1333MHz DDR3 launched in 2007, with 1600MHz DDR3 expected in 2008. This compares with DDR2 speeds of 533MHz, 667MHz, and 800MHz.

DDR3 DIMMs have 240 pins, the same number as DDR2, and are the same size, but are electrically incompatible and have a different key notch location. This will keep end users from installing an incorrect part into a DDR2 or DDR3 motherboard.

GDDR3 memory, with a similar name but completely different technology, has already been in use for several years in high-end graphic cards such as ones from NVIDIA or ATI Technologies, and as main system memory on the Microsoft Xbox 360. It has sometimes been incorrectly referred to as “DDR3″.

DDR3 will be available on desktops, servers, notebooks, telecommunications/networking and other platforms in the following form-factors:

• Unbuffered DIMMs, ECC or non-ECC
• Registered ECC DIMMs
• MicroDIMMs
• SO-DIMMs
• Custom Modules

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Diagnosing Problems with your Computer Memory

When you’re using your computer, you expect that it will work whenever you want it to. You expect to be able to turn on your computer, do what you need to do, and have a good experience overall. But when things begin to happen to interrupt your computer time, this is not only frustrating because your computer or laptop isn’t working, but also because you don’t know exactly what the problem is.

For many computers, problems can stem from memory troubles. If you’ve had your computer for a long time, you might want to look out for these common memory problems:

The blue screen of death

If you’re going to boot up your computer or you’re in the middle of an activity and you get the ‘blue screen of death’ on your PC, you might be having troubles with the computer memory. When this screen happens once and then doesn’t seem to happen on a later boot up, you will want to bring your computer into a repair shop anyway to get the memory looked at. While it might seem like a minor annoyance, it can become a major problem if you use your computer for important tasks. Make sure that you backup all of your files and programs if you can get back on the computer.

The computer acts strangely

While this isn’t a very specific diagnosis or symptom, any computer behavior, like a blank screen for no reason or crashing more often than usual and for no reason can also be signs of a memory issue. If you’ve been running certain programs together without any troubles before, but suddenly your computer shuts down whenever you try, it may be a big sign of memory troubles.

Likewise, if you notice that your computer can’t handle multiple big memory programs at the same time, it might be a sign for an upgrade or a replacement of your current memory. Things like video games and video editing applications are the biggest programs you have, so this is where you might see these kinds of problems. If your computer crashes as you use these programs, you need more memory.

The computer just won’t start

While it might seem like your computer is simply dead, faulty memory can also cause your computer to not boot up. Replacing the memory is much cheaper than replacing the computer, so try that first before you completely give up. If you hear long beeping noises when you try to boot, that is a sure sign that the memory is having troubles.

The screen is distorted

When your computer is having troubles showing the graphics on your screen – it might also be a sign of a computer memory issue. Of course, it could also be that your video card needs replacing, too.

What can you do?

The good news is that memory problems are generally easy to fix with new memory. But if you’re not sure what is wrong with your computer, you may want to take it to a certified computer repair shop or send it back to the manufacturer. They will:

• Test the computer
• Try replacing the memory
• Look at the rest of the circuitry
• Check the connections
• Test individual components

When the testing is done, the repair center should be able to tell you what is going on with your computer and what needs to be fixed.

Now, you can simply try to replace your memory to see if that does the trick, but if something more major is happening, you might want a qualified repair specialist to deal with the issue. However, you can have your computer checked out first and then do the memory repair on your own if they tell you that the memory is the issue.

Visit Upgrade Computer Memory to find the correct memory upgrade for your computer. Click here to view this blog in PDF.

Tags: Diagnosing Memory Problems

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3 Tips to Remember When Doing a Memory Upgrade on your Desktop

A desktop computer might be the best investment you make for your business and for your family. By providing you with the ability to create professional looking documents, access to the internet, and general gaming and music functions, you can not only broaden your world, but you can also keep up with the fast pace of information. If you’ve had your computer for a while, you may begin to wonder what else it can do for you and for your life. And that’s where many people start when they think about adding memory.

Why You Need More Memory

Just as we all wish that we had a more efficient memory system in our brains some days, our computers wish for more memory to improve their function. RAM, or random access memory, is essential for storing programs and information when we are working on the computer, making it easier for us to access this information when we need it. The more programs we need to access, the more memory we need. As the rest of the computer is bogged down with stored programs and documents, the computer needs to rely on the RAM more and more to perform basic functions.

As this RAM depletion occurs, you might notice that your computer is running slower or having troubles with basic programs. Your computer might crash more often than it ever has or it may freeze in the middle of a task. If you didn’t have a lot of memory to begin with when you bought the computer, chances are good that you still don’t have a lot of memory to work with – and you need to correct this.

The good news is that you can actually do your own memory upgrade on your computer to make things move more smoothly for you. Here are three tips to help you with your first memory upgrade.

Tip #1: Always Check on How Much Memory You Have and Determine How Much you need

Just like you can’t screw two light bulbs into one socket, you can’t always put a lot of memory into a desktop computer. Some models simply aren’t equipped to handle higher amounts of memory. But they can often be built up to about 1GB average, which is a fair amount of total memory for a basic desktop computer.

To find out how much memory your computer can handle, you can refer to your user’s manual to see where the computer lists the memory capability. If you can not find it here, you might want to go to your computer manufacturer’s website to see if they can give you directions from here. The help desk for your brand can also help guide you.

If your computer can handle upwards of 2gb, you may want to try to determine how much you need. In many cases, you won’t need to max out your memory. You will just add what you need. Take a look at how you use your computer. If you are a normal computer user, you may only need to increase a little. If you play high-end computer games or are into media editing, you may want to add more.

Tip #2: Always Buy from a Certified Memory Seller

It’s very tempting to buy memory from someone that is selling it for a low price. When shopping for memory you will see many retailers and various pricing. Remember to check that the product you are buying is brand new and graded A. There are many retailers that often offer Value or Salvage RAM. While this type of memory may be less expensive, it is not brand new or graded A. Buying from a cheaper seller can often result in malfunctioning equipment as well as a loss of the money you paid for it.

Tip#3: Always Read the Directions

Installing memory into a computer is actually quite simple, if you read the directions. Your computer manual should have instructions on how to install memory. Here are the basic tips:

• Turn off and unplug your desktop
• Press in the power button to discharge any electrical charge
• Touch a metal part of the tower to discharge electricity
• Open up the tower, and locate your memory slots.
• Push in new memory until it ‘clicks’
• Put tower back together and turn on

Visit Upgrade Computer Memory to find the correct memory upgrade for your computer. Click here to view this blog in PDF.

Tags: Upgrade Desktop Memory

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