[discobay]

I have a Sony VAIO notebook with 512MB of RAM. I know, I know what was I thinking! Well I am thinking of adding an additional 512MB. The retailer told me that adding RAM can be performed by anyone without invalidating the warranty. Who would you recommend to do this?

[MikeLowrey]

I'd highly recommend it! But I'd go for 2 sticks of 1G ram, the good news is memory is cheap these days, if you're still using sodimm (if you only have 512mb on your laptop, you're probably still using sodimm instead of micro-dimm) then 2G of ram will only cost you less than $700.

[NB] Samsung DDR2 667MHz 1G SODIMM HK$ 340.00

[discobay]

MikeLowrey: your name reminds me of the movie Bad Boys. Thanks but do you have any retailers in mind?

[KnowItAll]

discobay : there is a gray market Sony dealer in Wanchai Comp Center ... first floor, left hand corner last shop. They can do it for you .. and have a workshop a couple of blocks away incase they don't have the RAM on hand to so the switch for you.

I've had them switch a burnt out DVD RAM drive and added memory from them for my toshiba notebook.

[discobay]

Any warranty on work done?

[MikeLowrey]

Originally Posted by discobay

MikeLowrey: your name reminds me of the movie Bad Boys. Thanks but do you have any retailers in mind?

As KIA mentioned, that shop in Wan Chai. Or if you think you can do it yourself (which is relatively easy) you can just buy the sticks of ram from Wan Chai or Mongkok and it'll save you a few bucks.

If you get a shop to do it for you, they'll probably help you out if something goes wrong, some shops have been known to be pretty helpful but it depends on your luck and I wouldn't call it a warranty.

Here's pricelist for computer parts, they update everyday and it should give a pretty accurate reflection on how much computer parts cost in Hong Kong. Select ram from the drop down box, and the ones with [NB] infront are notebook ram.

http://www.jumbo-computer.com/pricelist.asp

If you tell me the model of your sony laptop, I can recommend a good pair of ram for you.

[discobay]

It is the Sz32/B.

[MikeLowrey]

The good news is your laptop has two 533mhz sodimm slots, so it will be cheap and easy to upgrade. Since 533mhz sodimm ram costs the same as the 667mhz these days so I'd recommend getting two sticks of 667mhz 1G because they're downward compatible. Your laptop will automatically set the frequency to 533mhz and in come cases you might even get lower latency.

So your choices are:

[NB] A-DATA DDR2 667MHz 1G SODIMM HK$ 338.00 x2
[NB] Kingston DDR2 667MHz 1G SODIMM HK$ 335.00 x2
[NB] Samsung DDR2 667MHz 1G SODIMM HK$ 340.00 x2
[NB] Transcend DDR2 667MHz 1G SODIMM HK$ 325.00 x2

Some brands come with a life time warranty, and some will come with a 5 year warranty. But I think the life time warranty is just a gimmick because computer products become obsolete every few years anyway. Samsung and Kingston have pretty good reputations when it comes to making quality laptop ram, but I've had experience using trancend's other products (flash memory and desktop ram) and they seem alright too.

[discobay]

Thanks mate.