Netbook 2GB RAM memory upgrade

If you have started looking at upgrading the RAM in your netbook to 2GB then you have probably looked around at some forums and read user reviews and found that you are more confused now than when you started.

You might have seen terms like cl, 667 or 800MHz and non-ECC that made you wonder which type of memory that you needed. Well these numbers are all very important, and only certain ones are compatible with your netbook. The best-selling and highest rated netbook memory is the Crucial 2GB stick so I’ll adress that particular brand, but this applies to all brands.

The first thing that you should know is that almost all modern netbooks (well 95% of them including Asus, Acer, etc) use the Atom processor which has a front-side bus speed of 667MHz (for the N280, the N270 is 533MHz). This is where the memory has to travel through in order for the processor to use it. This tells us that even if you get memory that is listed at 800MHz it will not help anything, because in order to use it the computer has to underclock it to 667 (or 533)MHz and some computers don’t like to do this.

Another important thing to make sure is that the RAM you’re looking at is non-ECC, and also of course 200 pin SO-DIMM. This basically just means that it will fit your netbook or laptop.

The third thing we need to look at is CL, or cs latency. This is basically how fast the RAM itself can operate, or the delay time. The lower the cs latency number the better. There are 2 top-selling types of Crucial RAM which you will probably see if you look it up and one is 800MHz with a cl=6 while the other is 667MHz with a cl=5.

Their prices are only a couple of dollars apart and most people would get the 800MHz thinking it is faster, but actually after the computer underclocks it to 667MHz then the second one is faster because it has a smaller cs latency. That is the one I went with and I have had no problems, and I would say around a 50% improvement in speed and apps.

Here’s a benchmark for an Asus Eee PC 901 before and after the upgrade:

Benchmark: 1GB 2GB

Photoshop CS3 test (seconds): 1441 1160

Other programs are similiar in performance increases, and this is definitely one of the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades you can do for your netbook.

Read part 2 of this post for a detailed tutorial of replacing your RAM.