How to determine which RAM to buy for laptop?

July 29, 2015 1:27 PM

It's been a while since I have fiddled with computers. How do I figure out which RAM to buy online? My son needs to buy some more RAM for his circa 2011 Acer Aspire laptop (I replaced the hard disk a while ago so it's still got life in it). It's got 4GB of RAM, but I'd like to boost it to 8GB. Do I need to worry about a specific variety of RAM, or is it all the same.

Googling the model number is not much help because it's been a few years now, and it wasn't a particularly popular laptop.

posted by Nevin to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Do the look-up tools at Crucial work for you?
posted by mr_roboto at 1:32 PM on July 29, 2015 [4 favorites]

I used to do Googling for this sort of stuff and now I just go to Crucial and step through their "What RAM do I need?" thingdoo and buy what they tell me, or comparison shop to see if their prices are competitive (they usually are) and then buy what they tell me.

On preview: yep.
posted by jessamyn at 1:33 PM on July 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Do I need to worry about a specific variety of RAM

Yes.

Go to Crucial.com and use their advisor tools (either the questionnaire or the downloadable system scanner) to find how much and what kind are available for your specific machine. Be aware that many manufacturers cheap out by installing 2x2GB chips (with a maximum of two slots) to get your 4GB, so you may have to buy 2x4GB or 1x8GB to get your desired 8GB.

edit: what mr_roboto said
posted by bluecore at 1:33 PM on July 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Okay, sounds good, thanks!
posted by Nevin at 1:44 PM on July 29, 2015

If you want a second opinion, I've bought RAM from 1stchoicememory every few years and their tool is good.
posted by Nelson at 12:33 PM on July 30, 2015