laptop memory buying guidance

[sixf00t4]

i have a dell inspiron 3800, with 192 megs now. a 64 stick and a 128 stick. i want to get 512, so 2 sticks of 256, it says 512 is the total max, does that mean i can't get a 512 stick?

http://www.memorysuppliers.com/kin25pc144pi2.html is the cheapest ram i coud find, right now i have pc100, but this pc133 is cheaper, anybody know why?

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1915.html is their rating, not too hot, do you think it would still be safe to order from them?

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/m...=us&l=en&cs=19 is dell's prices. so you can see that the reseller is 1/2 the price. but i would think i can still get pc133, even though dell only says 100 right?

[Atomic Rooster]

Have you looked at Crucial? They are lower than both of those you listed. Here's a couple of links from them:

Crucial PC133 (SODIMM's at the bottom of the page.)

Crucial PC100 for the Dell Inspiron 3800 Series

I'm sure you can use just one 512Mb stick.

[sixf00t4]

hmm crucial was the first placed i looked??? that was strange, i swore it was $75. oh well..

so what do you think about the pc133 or pc100?

another question...what does the cl3 and cl2 mean?


should i be going to the specific dell 3800 ones, or just go with the crucial since they are 1/3 cheaper

[Atomic Rooster]

CL stands for "CAS latency," which is the number of clock cycles it takes before data starts to flow once a command is received. The lower the number the better. You should get the PC133. It's backwards compatible (meaning it will run at PC100 speeds) and it's lower priced than the PC100. Go figure.