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Great price and better than the PC2-5300

This memory upgrade is fantastic for the price, considering just a few years ago something like this would have set you back several hundred dollars. I easily installed it in my netbook the other day, which is a Asus EeePC 1005HA.

The installation for the Asus was simple: you unscrew the panel on the bottom of the netbook labeled “memory”, unclamp your installed RAM, and then push this one into place. Make sure you ground yourself before installing it, and DO NOT get any moisture or food in the netbook or on the RAM, it will ruin it! If the clamps are not snug to the side groves, you’ve installed it wrong and need to go back and push it in further. This will be quite obvious when you turn on the computer and it doesn’t start or you get a blue screen of death. You can check if the module is properly installed after you startup your system (if you have Windows XP) by right-clicking on “My Computer”, selecting “Properties” in the menu, and seeing if the memory changed under system information. If you don’t want to go through booting the OS, press the key that brings up the BIOS (typically F2) when you first start up the computer and check the system information. The specifics for other models are all available on Youtube. Just do a search for your model and “memory installation”, and some kind soul will have posted some video instructions.

So, what’s the difference between this and the 667 Mhz model? Not much. You’re not going to see a massive difference in speed from the upgrade, but it’s worth the $3 extra if you can use it. The difference will only be obvious if you plan to overclock–which is possible on my Asus. I’ve noticed about a 5% or so increase in speed over PC2-5300 modules in other systems. Of course, your system has to be able to run 800 Mhz, or it’s just going to run at 667 Mhz. It will not hurt your system to install the 800 if it can only use the 667, so don’t fret if you’re not sure what Mhz your system takes.

Buyer beware: make sure that your laptop, notebook, or netbook is compatible with the memory module you buy! Obviously, the EeePC 1005 netbook line takes this upgrade, but some don’t. This is a DDR2 200-pin SODIMM module, so if your system does not take DDR2 it won’t work, and if it doesn’t take 200-pin modules, it won’t even fit in the first place! Most new computers do take DDR2, but always check for compatibility before you buy hardware. Don’t take it for granted and wind up with a useless module!

Overall, I recommend this. It’s great for the price, and you get a free 1-year warranty with it. Until you open up your system and spit on the module, it’s very rare that wouldn’t know something is wrong with it after a year of use.

Update (2/9/2012): I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Crucial Technology CT25664AC800 2GB 200-pin SODIMM DDR2 PC2-6400 Memory Module Electronics, was written by J. Tetreault.

The average rating for this item is 5 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.