Solved! Netbook- Trying to understand ram/cas/fsb *head explodes*

[marxr87]

What would be the ideal ram to upgrade to with this netbook? do i need to just stick it in or can I tweak it? I've put ram in comps before but cas latency and all this other gobbledy beloved patriot confuses me I just want the comp to have (even) more kickass battery life and speed. I called MSI to make sure since I keep reading different things on the net and there is one (1) slot for ram current ram in there is DDR2 533 1gb and the max I can run I believe is 2. Should I get 800? My fsb is 533 but I've heard its better to have faster ram. Anywho, I'm just going to assume I know nothing and ask you guys

MSI Wind U110-031US Metallic Gray Intel Atom Z530(1.60GHz) 10.0" WSVGA 1GB Memory 160GB HDD Netbook <---me
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152142

Specs
General
Brand MSI
Series Wind
Model U110-031US
Part# 9S7-N01212-031
Color Metallic Gray
Operating System
OS Provided Windows XP Home
Processor
CPU Type Intel Atom
CPU Speed Z530(1.60GHz)
CPU FSB 533MHz
CPU L2 Cache 512KB
Chipset
Chipset Intel SCH US15W
Display
Screen Size 10.0"
Widescreen Display Yes
Display Type WSVGA
Max Resolution 1024 x 600
Display Feature LED backlight
Graphics
Graphics Processor Intel GMA 500
Video Memory Shared system memory
Memory
Memory Speed DDR2 533
Memory 1GB
Memory Spec on Board
Hard Drive
HDD 160GB
Hard Drive Interface SATA
Dimension & Weight
Dimension 10.24" x 7.09" x 0.75" - 1.24"
Weight 3.00 lbs.
Netbook Camera
Camera Type Built-in
Camera Pixels 1.3 Megapixel
Communications
LAN 10/100Mbps
WLAN 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
Bluetooth Yes
Expansion / Connectivity
USB 3
Video Ports 1 x VGA
Audio Ports 1 x Microphone jack; 1 x Headphone jack
Audio
Audio HD Audio
Speaker Built-in stereo speakers
Input Device
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard Ergonomic Big-Size Keyboard
Card Reader
Card Reader 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MSpro)
Battery
Battery 9 cell (7800mAh)
Battery Life 14 hours
Manufacturer Warranty
Labor 1 year limited
Parts 1 year limited


Also: My wireless seems shoddy, is there a better wireless manager I can dl or maybe an update for this one? Other than that I love this netbook so far. I would highly recommend it to anyone. The speakers, believe it or not, are actually decent and its a matte screen. It says 14hrs of battery life, but I am a FF tab skank and I usually get about 12.5 hrs I downloaded an app to swap functions of keys on the board so I can make that stupid FN key in the bottom left corner my ctrl key. Thanks all!

 

[marxr87]

bump

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hello Marx,

You can upgrade to 2GB. Apparently you break your warrenty if you do so. So thats up yo you to decide if the 2GB upgrade outweighs the warrenty. For your netbook, an 800mhz RAM stick would be worthless since your processor is quite weak (think celeron), intel atom processors aren't meant for heavy tasks anyways. Stick with 533Mhz RAM chips as I believe your motherboard doesn't support anything higher anyways, so if you did get an 800mhz ram chip it would down grade it back to 533. I haven't seen the bios for the MSI WIND you mentioned, but I highly doubt you can set CAS latencies anyways. So you shouldn't worry about it too much. But if it interests you, if you see CAS latency of 9 on RAM chips, that's pretty high. SOmething with a CAS of say 4 or 5, that' pretty low. The lower the CAS latency the better, as CAS latency basically boils down to how fast your CPU is communicating either with the FSB or with the RAM directly (so lower is better).

So look for any kind of DDR-2 533 Mhz SO-DIMM (The SO-DIMM is important as it means Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Modules).

Here is a link for an example of what kind of RAM to get:

http/www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17074&vpn=KVR533D2S4%2F1G&manufacture=Kingston

NOtice it has a CAS of 4, which is really good. But it really won't matter too much.

Also what do you mean your wireless is shoddy? Intermittent connections? Unable to connect? If so:

What kind of wireless router are you using for your internet?

IS there a microwave, phone or any other wireless transmitte/interferer near your wireless router?

What is the exact model name of your wireless card in your laptop? Maybe it's just a driver issue.

 

[marxr87]

internet anywhere...i always have low or very low strength even if im sitting right next to the source and it can be intermittent
card is 802.11bgn 1T2R Mini Card Wireless Adapter
made by Ralink Technology, Corp

 

[Chainzsaw]

Sorry im no wireless expert, but you could try changing the radio frequency number for both your card and wireless router. There may be quite a few other wireless devices around you trying to use the same frequencies depending on where you are.

 

[marxr87]

No you dont void the warranty...Even if you break the sticker as long as it is only for ram. I called MSI directly and asked them and they said it would not as long as only the ram was upgraded
how about this ram?

Kingston HyperX 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Laptop Memory Model KHX4200S2LL/2G
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104100

it has cas 3...

 

[Chainzsaw]

Why not, eh? (in response to RAM)

You should probably start a new thread for your wireless problem instead of burying under the guise of something else.

 

[marxr87]

Its not just my router though....At school, at home, at my friends or at my moms. Do you know how to change the freq?

 

[marxr87]

ah ya good point lol