I have one 2gb stick and one 512mb stick of memory in my laptop... my friend has told me that my laptop wnould work better with just the 2gb stick ? anyone know much about this ?
No sure, this is all thats on them: 512 = 2Rx 16 PC2 - 4200s - 444 - 12 - A3 2gb = PC2 - 5300 CL5 240-Pin DIMM
I don't really know what it would hurt. If the max it would hold was 2 Gigs then I see that it would probably be better to only have two gigs, but I see that yours holds four so there really should be no problem. I have a computer that have two sticks of different sizes and it runs faster than it did before. I wouldn't go to your friend any more for computer advice. I don't think he knows what he's talking about.
He is right. It is always better to have sticks in the same size. You should also look at the speed of the RAM because computers use RAM randomly and deal with all the sticks as a single stick so different speeds will slow your operations. Now another question. Do you really need that 512mb one ? I don't think you will need more than 2GB of RAM on a laptop
Adam For proper dual channel memory operation on the newer computers the memory must be installed in matching pairs. I don't know if that applies to your system. If you bought it new what did it have at the then. If you have two different memory speeds the faster will run at the slower rate. So if your board supports the 5300 ram, the 4200 is slowing down the system. 32 bit windows (xp) can not really make use of more than 3 GB so anything over that is wasted.
http://www.samsung.com/he/products/notebookcomputer/r_series/np_r20.asp?page=Specifications This page tells me that you are using ddr2 memory which in most sysyems should be installed in matched pairs. Your manual will tell you for sure. Dual channel memory is in theory twice as fast as single channel memory. Your best bet at this point in time is to buy another 2 gig stick that matches the specs of the one you have. The sustem according to the above page uses PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SODIMM.