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Hi, from Samsung specs, the supported memory type is PC2-5300 / 667 MHz, but when I opened my NC20, I found PC2-6400 / 800 MHz RAM installed. So, I would choose the latter.
Check out the thread Upgrade the RAM on an NC20 on the wiki.
And if anyone has a go and wants to write up more detail then please do! You can login to the wiki using your login details from this site :). If you can’t get in, let me know and I will sort it (sometimes the sync gets behind)
[quote1248967577=eK-XL]
Doesn’t the NC20 take 800mhz ram?
[/quote1248967577]in fact, the nc20 takes 800mhz ram very well… if you can find a low latency one, say, 4-4-4-12, it would even be happier 🙂
I have actually seen both (PC 5300 and PC 6400) listed as compatible. Strange but the FAQ section on the Samsung USA website seems to indicate only PC 6400 (800 MHz) RAM? Look under the question “Can I Upgrade The Memory (RAM) On My Netbook?” and there is a table that lists PC 5300 or PC 6400 for all the netbooks except the NC20 which it lists as PC 6400 (800 MHz) only. It seems however there are other NC 20 users that have used PC 5300 DDR2 RAM just fine. Im off to get my 2 Gig stick tonight and will go for the PC 6400 option.
I just love my new (actually my sons new) NC 20!
Bought Kingston ValueRam PC6400 CL5 recently…
I can conclude the motherboard actually only runs at 667 max based on the advanced Bios settings. The non spd setting only allows 400, 533 and 667mhz for DRAM speed.
Had to check these advanced settings, since the NC20 Bios will use spd timings by default. CPU-Z showed me no SPD entry is on the Kingston module for 667mhz (PC5300). So I ended up setting my ram manually to run at CL5, burst mode 8 and 667mhz.
Found some screenies in another topic on this forum, but to me these all show the timings table of the memory module and not the actual speed. CPU-Z prolly can’t read out the MB data correctly for the NC20. The tab that usually shows the actual timings is blank.
So kids saying their NC20 memory runs at 400mhz… think again. 😛 It is defaulting to the 333mhz (=667mhz DDR2 or PC5300) or the next best lower figure displayed on the memory timings table…
Just note that the 800 MHz memory will still only work at the lower rate which is determined by the speed of the front side bus on the motherboard (FSB 533MHz / 667MHz in the NC10 with 945GME Express Chipset ) The price anomaly, and the reason Samsung used the 800 Mhz, is because netbooks are a new phenomenon, and memory sellers had been producing for the fastest latest laptops. They hadn’t foreseen a demand for slower laptops, with more modest speed requirements. It is unlikely that new netbooks introduced will come with memory faster than they can use, as memory producers adjust for next year’s demand.
So far I’ve tried both types – PC-5300/667 MHz and PC-6400/800 MHz – in my NC20 and I had no problem, no crash … and no performance enhancement either. Oddly enough, the S3 graphics utility properties reports a memory clock speed of 667 MHz with my PC-6400 / 800 MHz RAM !! So, finally, I would choose the cheapest solution, as long as you upgrade to 2 GBytes.
Its a shame the NC20 doesn’t support 4GB. I recently upgraded to 2GB and really noticed the difference.
You are all misunderstanding why Samsung included DDR800 in the NC20.
Ram is one major part of a computer that doesn’t like overclocking even with the addition of extra voltage. When you buy a stick(s) or ram they have different speeds that they can run at with the use of a divider IE:DDR (400,533,667) with each speed the ram requires a different set of timings IE: 5-5-5-15, 4-4-4-12 etc.
RAM USUALLY WILL OVERCLOCK NO HIGHER THAN 15% NO MATTER THE VOLTAGE INCREASE.believe it or not the NC20 is actually overclocked to 1.5ghz which also means that the ram is overclocked by 6.5% with the use of a 213mhz FSB over the normal 200mhz. my having ram that accepts higher speed than the divider its using (800mhz using a 667devider) allows the FSB to be set higher.
theoretically the following would have the same speed:
DDR667 divider with a FSB=233mhz CL5
DDR800 divider with a FSB=200mhz CL5to give you an idea on how this would work in a more extreme setting, I have an AMD desktop with a motherboard that supports a max of DDR800. If i install (which i did) DDR-1200 ram. Theoretically the ram should support DDR-800 with the FSB turned up to 300MHZ making the ram work at a speed of DDR1200 but using the DDR-800 divider.
DDR667 rated ram can run at 711mhz without issue but i believe that samsung opted for the DDR800 ram as a safety to improve its reliability numbers.
As a side note, know that (again, THEORETICALLY) DDR800 CL5 ram runs at the same speed as DDR667 CL4. I don’t know the minimum CL (case latency) that the NC20 supports.
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