No solder required.
Their reason for soldering ram is not usually about space.
As far as I know, it’s about access times between the RAM and CPU. It’s the same reason SoCs are having RAM integrated.
It’s about cost, space, heat and most of all “MONEY”
If I force you to buy the extra ram upfront because you can’t upgrade it, I can charge a premium for it.
r/techsupportgore will be full of people dropping their ram on those pins and damaging them. Still cool though.
That was one of the things that excited me most from the iFixit video; the (LGA?) pins are a separate part that can be replaced as well. Simplifies the motherboard because then there are just flat pads on there, which means they don’t need to include the whole array of fancy pins for a second module if it doesn’t ship with one.
Timestamped video link: https://youtu.be/K3zB9EFntmA?t=178
Ooh, that may be a game changer then.
yeah I didn’t really understand that part tbh. if they can connect the array using flat pads, why not make that the connection for the memoryb instead of the fragile pins? why the extra component?
I mean there will still need to be spring-loaded pins somewhere in order to make good connection. And tiny pins means someone will bend them by accident at some point. And the pins are still a little involved to make, so taking them off means the RAM can be made cheaper. So this means:
- if just replacing/upgrading RAM, then no need for extra pins to be made
- if adding ram to a slot that didn’t have any before, then can also buy pins or they can come in some kits or whatever
- when someone bends pins, then just the pins can be bought for a reasonable price, instead of replacing expensive RAM, or very expensive motherboard
Makes me wonder why we couldn’t have a similar system with CPU’s. Accidentally drop the chip into the motherboard? You’d only have to replace £5 worth of parts instead of £500.
I’ve never had to solder laptop ram. I always buy ones that let me get in there without a complete disassembly.
I’ll buy it when its in a laptop with coreboot, which is probably never.
