Can I update the RAM in my old Sony VAIO?

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I’ve got a circa 2007 Sony VAIO, model #VGN-NR285E that I installed my Linux Mint on.  It has just 2 GB of RAM and I’d like to update it to 4 GB.  Is this going to be possible?  I can’t seem to find DDR2-667 for it and I’d need 2 – 2GB cards.  The other part of the equation is – will 32 bit linux Mint handle all of that memory?

This is a nice laptop and I’m running a new Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB SSD.  I don’t have a swap file so I’m depending on that 2 Gigs on Ram to carry it all.  I’d really like get it up to 4 Gigs if possible.  I could use some more speed.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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32-bit architecture can only handle a max of 3.something GB RAM. You can put 4GB in the computer (IF it is not maxed out at 2GB) but it will only be able to recognize 3 and a fraction. Some of those older PCs maxed out at 2GP. 64-bit may take up to 8GB

You can Google the make/Model and find out the max. Good luck finding the RAM for it, though.

User’s Manual here.

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Charlie, Elly

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I couldn’t find any technical info on the Sony website; however, I found the following on the Crucial website, when I did a search on the model number:

https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr2/ct2kit25664ac800/ct5295400

It appears that you can install a total of 4 GB of RAM – 2 x 2 GB sticks. This probably means that your computer is 32 bit.

The Crucial memory is $60. You’ll probably be good if you go with that.

On the other hand, that sounds like a lot of money to pay for the memory. It looks like you can get the exact same memory on Ebay for half that price:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucial-4GB-Kit-2x-2GB-DDR2-800-MHz-PC2-6400-Sodimm-Memory-RAM-200-pin-Laptop/251367867577?hash=item3a86b144b9:g:UVoAAMXQ0v1RcKhu

I’m not sure if they are the same; but I would probably go with Ebay, because of the price, and because it says that it is brand new.

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Charlie

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The Ram chips I have now are DDR2 667, PC2-5300.  The specifications say 667 is the bus speed.  Is it okay to put higher speed DDR2 800, PC2-6400 Ram described in the Crucial link in this computer?  If this works, I’ll go with the new Ram on the Crucial site.

Thanks very much.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Add a fixed size swapfile of 2-4GB, Crucial have RAM for your system, you can probably add a single 2GB: https://uk.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/sony/vaio-vgn-nr285e

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Charlie

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Charlie wrote:

I’ve got a circa 2007 Sony VAIO, model #VGN-NR285E that I installed my Linux Mint on. It has just 2 GB of RAM and I’d like to update it to 4 GB. Is this going to be possible? I can’t seem to find DDR2-667 for it and I’d need 2 – 2GB cards. The other part of the equation is – will 32 bit linux Mint handle all of that memory?

You might be able to get it up to 8 GB.  Your Vaio uses the same chipset that my Asus F8Sn uses, and I have 8 GB in it and functioning well.  Intel and Asus both say 4GB is the max, but I’d read from some other owners of the model that they’d found 8 GB works, and indeed it did, in my case. I ran RAM tests on it for a bunch of hours and it was error-free.

It wasn’t cheap, though.

I would not recommend going 32 bit on Mint.  The world is leaving 32-bit behind, and Ubuntu (upon which Mint is based) will only be available in 64 bit in its next LTS version.  You can still use the current versions of Mint for a few more years, but applications that are still available as 32-bit will thin as time passes.  Waterfox, my browser of choice, never even had a 32-bit version!

Even on my 4 GB (non upgradeable) Acer Swift, I use 64-bit Linux, and it came with 64-bit Windows 10.  The pm965 chipset and Core 2 Duo combo can run 64-bit without a problem (that’s what I have installed on my Asus F8).

Also, I’d put a swap file on the SSD for sure.  Even with 4 GB in my Swift, it’s not enough to avoid virtual memory.  I have my swappiness value set to 100 (max) to try to get it to swap more, so that it doesn’t need to thrash when the memory pressure is high.  Get that stuff swapped out sooner so it won’t have to be done later, that’s the plan.

I would not worry about the write endurance of a SSD, if that’s the concern.  If you don’t need the swap file, it won’t be used anyway, and if you do need it, having it will improve performance and prevent Linux from using the OOM killer to keep from crashing.

I’ve got a Samsung 128GB 840 Pro SSD that I’ve been using for 6 or 7 years, and I’ve had a swap/pagefile on it all of that time (first under Windows, now under Linux).  I used to hit the page file in Windows really hard back in the day, and I’ve never tried to be gentle with it.  It’s been written and rewritten, all kinds of stuff.  I’ve beaten the thing to death over the years!

Even so, it’s still got 68% of its rated life left, and even when its rated life reaches zero, it’s only part of the way to failure, if it’s like the one that TechReport tested until it failed.

Your SSD has twice the capacity of my 840 Pro, so that’s twice the write endurance right off the bat, and I believe that the newer Evo models have more write endurance per NAND cell than my older generation Pro did.

 

 

 

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
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Charlie

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I agree that I’ll have to eventually go with 64 bit Linux, I should have right off but I wasn’t sure it would work on this old computer that came with Vista.  Meanwhile, getting 4 Gigs into it while I still can is a good idea I think.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Depending where the OP lives, here in the UK Mr Memory sells 2 x 2GB SODIMMS for £34.20 ($39.76) including VAT and delivery.

Hope this helps…

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Charlie

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Hi Rick, sorry for taking so long getting back on this subject.  I live on the east coast of the U.S.A.  I went to the Mr. Memory site but was wondering what the shipping costs would be and if they would take an order from me.  I didn’t pursue it past that but am finding it impossible to find that memory here in the U.S.  Do you think I should still try ordering from Mr. Memory?

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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The first time I visited that site they only dealt in pounds.  I just went there again and now they will accept US dollars and will ship to the US.  Shipping would be $13.70 but may take some time (that is not a real problem for me).  I don’t like that they require I give them my telephone number in order to place an order with them.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Search (DuckDuckGo) for [ “ddr2-667” ]. My first two hits are at Newegg and Amazon.

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Charlie

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Thanks Paul, the main reason I’m pursuing Mr. Memory is because they have a picture of my exact computer on the webpage, and the price is a bit lower.  I’ve dealt with Newegg and Amazon before though and will not rule them out.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Amazon was where I bought a RAM chip.

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Hm, yeah, I sort of think it might be a bit of a bother to ship my old pair of 4GB DDR2 SODIMMs overseas… (used to live in a Dell Precision 6300 and I’m fairly sure I stashed the SODIMMs somewhere when that thing’s motherboard gave up the ghost.)

PKCano wrote:

32-bit architecture can only handle a max of 3.something GB RAM. …

Really would be about time to get that record straight. Large memory works fine in the higher-end 32-bit Windows Server versions (Advanced/Enterprise/Datacenter) since Windows 2000 on appropriate hardware… which admittedly was quite expensive back then. (And Linux from kernel version 2.3.23 onwards.)

Chipset and motherboard construction tended to be the limiting thing, but with a full-featured motherboard a 1995 Pentium Pro could do this already.

Since then, the lack of support for large memory in 32-bit PCs was a commercial decision, not a hard architectural limit.

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Charlie

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Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.1 is supposed to run very nicely on 2 Gigs of ram but when you have the latest Mint kernel and version of Firefox running, it’s pushing that 2 Gigs hard and the fan runs most of the time.  I’m thinking even 3+ Gigs would help this situation.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Thanks again to everyone for the help and advice.  It’s up to me now to decide how to proceed.  I wish it could be like it was in the old days where I could just go down the road to the local Best Buy store and get the memory I needed.  But then, back then memory cost $25 a megabyte.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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