Ram Upgrade from 4GB to 6GB

[piyushraut22]

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with 4GB DDR3 Ram in it and recently I got my hands on a spare 2GB DDR3L Ram from a Dell laptop. Both the RAMs are 1600MHz 12800. Can I use that RAM to increase my RAM from 4Gb to 6GB ?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The RAM from the Dell laptop is low voltage, your existing RAM isn't - - - but they should work together okay despite that - - no real way of knowing 100% until you try. However, 6GB is an unusual amount to have, plus the RAM won't work in dual-channel mode which gives better performance.

You'd be better off upgrading to 8GB to make it worthwhile, by adding another 4GB module instead of that 2GB one.

 

[piyushraut22]

The RAM from the Dell laptop is low voltage, your existing RAM isn't - - - but they should work together okay despite that - - no real way of knowing 100% until you try. However, 6GB is an unusual amount to have, plus the RAM won't work in dual-channel mode which gives better performance.

You'd be better off upgrading to 8GB to make it worthwhile, by adding another 4GB module instead of that 2GB one.

I have tried inserting the 2GB module as you asked but the task manager is showing 4GB as it was showing before. It is not showing 6GB as it should be showing.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Might be because it's a low voltage module (denoted by the 'L' in DDR3L) and your laptop might not be compatible with low voltage RAM.

Try using RAM which is same as your existing RAM (ie not low voltage -- so you need to buy DDR3, not DDR3L).