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One thing the savvy user must pay attention when buying a laptop is the memory expansion capabilities from the model he or she chose. Practically all laptops today allow you to add more memory. However, this expansion can be cheaper and easier to do on some models. Let’s see why.

The memory expansion on a laptop can be done by opening a compartment located on the bottom part of the computer. On some models, however, these modules are located below the keyboard, and you will have to remove the keyboard to access them! Consult the user’s guide to see the exact location of this compartment on your particular model.

Opening this compartment you will find the memory sockets. Three things can happen:

1. The current memory used by your laptop is installed directly on its motherboard, so it has all memory sockets (usually one or two) available for you to use. If this is your case, all you need to do is to buy one or two memory modules (depending on how many empty sockets your portable has available) and install them. You have to respect the limits of your laptop, as seen on its user’s guide. For example, if want to add more 2 GB memory but your model only supports up to 1 GB modules, you will have to install two 1 GB modules instead of one 2 GB device.
2. The current memory used by your laptop is available thru one memory module, which is using one of the two memory sockets available. In this case, you can buy one extra memory module to expand your computer’s memory. Here you have to pay close attention to the limit per module, as described on the laptop’s user’s guide. For example, if your laptop has one 512 MB module already installed and it has a 1 GB limit per socket, you cannot install a 2 GB module on the available socket. To get 2 GB on this particular model, you will have to buy two 1 GB modules and remove your old module. Of course a cheaper option in this case would be installing one 1 GB module on the empty socket to have a model with 1.5 GB total.
3. All the memory sockets are already used (see picture). In this case you will need to remove at least one of your old modules and install new ones. You have to respect your laptop memory limits, as noted above.

Memory modules for laptops are completely different in shape from desktop memory modules. So you can’t use spare desktop modules you may have slaying around on your laptop. And when buying modules for your laptop you have to take close attention to buy the right type, which is called SO-DIMM.

Then you need to know what kind of memory technology your laptop accepts: SDRAM, DDR, DDR2 or DDR3. SO-DIMM modules for each technology are different and you can’t install a DDR2 module on a laptop that only accepts DDR modules and vice-versa.

And finally we have speed. Speed can be given in megahertz (when given with the letters “DDR”) or in megabytes per second (when given with the letters “PC”). For example, a DDR2-667 module means that it works at 667 MHz, while a PC2-5300 means it works at 5,300 MB/s. To convert between these figures, just multiply or divide the value by eight. You will find out that DDR2-667 and PC2-5300 mean absolutely the same thing. On the picture, for example, our laptop had two 256 MB DDR PC2700 modules. They can also be found on the market as DDR333 parts.