Since it looks like I won't have the funds to by a new laptop any time soon, I've decided to get a little more out my current one. I have a four year old Sony Viao VGN-NW180J. It has been through two OS upgrades and still runs pretty well given it's age. But I'm starting to use some programs for my classes that are pushing my stock 4 GB of RAM to it upper limits. I'm looking to put take those out and put in 2 new 4 GB modules in there but after doing a Google search for parts I'm a little lost on a good brand to buy. Any help on picking a set would be greatly appreciated.

Let Me Google That For You

Crucial Ram is the first answer and that brand is good. If you don't want Crucial brand ram, just go onto newegg and look for something with the same specs. G-Skill is a great brand, Kingston is a great brand, Corsair, Patriot, Mushkin... they are all quality parts.

Edit: Really though. Adding RAM to a laptop is a waste of money. At $200 for 8 gigs of ram (almost three times the price of desktop ram), you are better off just putting that money in a savings account and putting it towards a new laptop. You will only notice a difference if you are editing video, and if that is the case, your laptop is so under powered for that task that you should look at a desktop PC.

What he said. Few things will use more than 4GBs of RAM unless you are multitasking. An old CPU is much more likely to be the problem for video and photo editing. Something that takes 15 minutes to handbrake on my desktop will take 4-6 hours on my six year old laptop all while using less than 500 MB (of RAM).

Was the answer at Tested.com's forums not good enough for you?

Barely anyone is on those forums, it is fucking dead there. You will see topics not get replied to or the last reply to any topic being over an hour old.

Unfortunately, like the other posts have said, buying more RAM would be a bad investment. That laptop uses DDR2 RAM. Now that it's no longer manufactured, the price would outweigh the benefits.

@protoroll: You have to be careful with upgrading laptop ram. If it isnt the right clockspeed, or isnt compatible, it could really fuck your computer up. If your laptops bios allows for clock speed adjustment it shouldnt matter, but most manufacturers dont allow for that

I recommend doing some research about what type of ram is in the comp, and match the specs to the new set youre buying. Id also recommend purchasing the ram from the laptop manufacturer; they usually let you search for accessories by make and model, showing you what will work with the comp

Ive had experience purchasing laptop ram, and one time the ram I put in would cause my computer to crash. Also find out how much ram will actually go in the computer. Usually the limit is 8 gb, but it can be higher

@thehbk: It was answered actually. Before he posted this here too.

@toxeia: I just like to get answers from multiple sources. I was posting these in between assignments at work so that is why there was a time delay in the posts.

But thanks everyone for the replies. Will be taking a close look at the options to see if it is really worth it now.

just my two cents worth : Crucial / Gskill / Mushkin / Patriot / Kingston / Corsair are all good brands... the brand type really dont matter all that much for what your wanting to do with it, ram is ram, brand matters only a small level like how fast they are, ram generally lasts a long time, some ram is better for over-clocking then others, some have better head spreaders, some are just simply better looking.. but all perform generally the same unless your overclocking which I'm guessing you wouldn't be doing anyway... they ARE expensive though, DDR2-800 I see as high as 200$, which is basically almost a new laptop anyway if you went for a cheap lappy or for a tablet.... Just get what you can afford which will hold you over till you can replace the thing... just my opinion