Toshiba NB550D 8GB RAM?

[hazar3000]

Hi Guys,

I've recently purchased a Toshiba NB550D/00K and am looking to put in a few upgrades.

First I'm throwing in a 120gb SSD and installing ubuntu, then I'm likely going to upgrade the wifi card and maybe see if I can change around a few other bits a pieces.

After doing a bit of research about the RAM limit (advertised as 2GB) I looked at installing 4GB RAM and everywhere I look seems to say that the advertised limit of 2GB is only as a result of the Win7 starter coming peinstalled, for me this isn't a problem as I'm replacing the hdd and installing linux, however after having a look around it seems that 8gb ddr3 isn't nearly as expensive as I originally thought (<$100)

so does anyone know if this will definitely not work? is there some actual hardware limitation on this laptop to stop me putting in 8gb?

also, there seems to be a distinct lack of 1066mhz 8gb ddr3 sticks for laptops, so is it likely to be an issue with chucking in 1333mhz sticks? or can I just reduce the speed?

Any advice would be much aooreciated.

Thanks Guys,
Hazar3000

 

[WR2]

Hello hazar3000;

It looks like there is a limit of 4GB due to the single RAM bank.
source: Toshiba NB550D (AMD Fusion) Netbook @ NotebookCheck
"Toshiba appears to have limited the maximum allowed memory. The AMD C-50 APU can use up to 4 GB in one bank via the A50M controller hub; during our testing we used a 4 GB Kingston module (type KVR1066D3S7/4G) which was recognized without a problem, but the usable amount was limited to 2 GB through Windows 7 Starter (32 Bit). A faster OCZ module with a speed of 1333 MHz (type OCZ3M13334G) was not recognized by our test system."

It's not clear why they OCZ 1333 RAM wasn't recognized. It should have had no problem running at 1066 speeds. If you can find a low latency (CAS7) 1066 RAM stick you can get the same effective bandwidth of a 1333 with a higher latency (CAS9).

 

[hazar3000]

Best answer selected by hazar3000.

 

[hazar3000]

Perfect, Disappointing but good to know, looks like 4gb it is.

 

[who2]

Perfect, Disappointing but good to know, looks like 4gb it is.

I have a Toshiba NB550D and i have put in one 8GB stick of Corsair value select Ram, cms08gx3m1a1333c9 and it works great. Shows 8gb in windows 7 64bit and in the bios.

 

[ethylmeatplow]

Very interesting. I'm looking at buying more memory for a Toshiba NB550D-10G. Until I saw this reply I was set to get a 4GB stick but I'm surprised to see someone claiming to have 8GB working. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[ryguy92250]

Very interesting. I'm looking at buying more memory for a Toshiba NB550D-10G. Until I saw this reply I was set to get a 4GB stick but I'm surprised to see someone claiming to have 8GB working. Can anyone confirm this?

I don't know if you still check these forums or are interested in the Toshiba nb550d still or not, and I hate to revive this thread, but I went ahead and bought the same stick of ram that who2 bought "cms08gx3m1a1333c9" from amazon.com for about $30 US, corsair value select ram (the value select sticker is on top of the package, you can't miss it), and it does indeed show up in windows as 8gb of ram.

HOWEVER, in order to actually use this ram, you must have an OS that will allow 8gb of ram. You mentioned running ubuntu so I doubt you will have any problems, but just in case you plan on using windows again, make sure its windows home premium or better for the full usage of 8gb ram.

In all honesty though, I don't see much of a difference in performance between a 4gb and 8gb. What can you run on a 1ghz cpu & integrated graphics that requires 8gb of ram usage?