SoDimms won't fit

May 10, 2007 12:36 PM

Did the physical form of the SoDIMM change between the PC2700 and the PC5300 design?

So our incredibly cheap new owners have issued me this Dell D505 notebook, one of the most unpleasant, sluggish machines I've experienced in 24 years of messing about with small computers.

Then I saw a deal ($39) for two Crucial 1GB PC5300 SoDIMMS, and I figured this upgrade from 512MB might help things a bit. Altho the unit is spec'd for PC2700 memory, I'd always heard that there wasn't a problem running faster memory than originally designed, it just won't be any faster than the bus was spec'd for.

But the damn things won't physically fit in the slot. The 'short' end is just a tad too wide. Is this a manufacturing mistake by Crucial, or are the faster memory boards made just a little differently?

posted by mojohand to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Response by poster: Damn. A little more creativity in my Googling and I wouldn't have wasted a AskMe question. And If I'd done it earlier, I'd have saved some money. It's the DDR1 vs. DDR2 thing, isn't it? Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.
posted by mojohand at 12:45 PM on May 10, 2007

PC2700 is DDR; PC5300 is DDR2. They're different, incompatible memory standards, so they get different SODIMM keyings. Sorry!

On preview, yep, you're right!
posted by marionnette en chaussette at 12:46 PM on May 10, 2007

I just made the same mistake :(
Damnit why can't everything be standardised!? (I bought the wrong type of graphics card a few months ago too, lol)
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:55 PM on May 10, 2007

I guess this is one reason why we need a MetaFilter Buy/Sell/Trade forum :P
posted by Chuckles at 6:10 PM on May 10, 2007