I have a notebook that has a two gig DDR2 ram in it.  As this is prone to being not very future proof, what type of RAM could suffice to have the best performance?  Maybe XDR?  I have an HP Pavilion dv9500 model with a Quanta 30CB mobo.  Thanks.

Ahem... you can't put XDR into a system that uses DDR2... actually, I don't know of a mainstream computer/motherboard that uses XDR, too expensive, too much latency.

Just add DDR2 of the same speed.

^Oh thanks, yeah I figured that would be a possible response, just wanted 2 b sure. Anyway, what is the best DDR2? Is it possible to add DDR3 to a DDR2 mobo?

I like kingston hyper mem in whichever flavor your motherboard allows. If you are not sure you should be able to see a spec sheet on your laptops website for that model.

Nope, you can't use DDR3 on DDR2. Your notebook accepts up to 4GB of RAM, but I couldn't find what speed and how many slots it has. You may want to check that info.

As for brands, Kingston is usually good. Actually any brand is good.

^It has 2 slots. Here's the CPU-Z dump -- -------------------------
CPU-Z version 1.46
-------------------------

Processors Map
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors 1
Number of threads 2

Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0
-- Core 1
-- Thread 0


Processors Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T5250
Codename Merom
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50GHz
Package Socket P (478) (platform ID = 7h)
CPUID 6.F.D
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping M0
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 1496.5 MHz (9.0 x 166.3 MHz)
Rated Bus speed 665.1 MHz
Stock frequency 1500 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2048 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
max VID 1.363 V
Features XD

Stop right there.

Whoever utters these 2 words in the same sentence and in the quoted order, s/he bullshitting.

No, really.

Your laptop is fine the way it is. Don't bother with upgrade and instead buy a new one in a few years.

Upgrading is no longer feasible since many years ago. Much "cheaper" buying new.

^I was saying not very future proof in the same sense you were referring to. I bought a notebook for college though so if I do get a new PC after grad I will get a tower.

I like using using Crucial, plus they have a System Scanner (also a Memory Advisor Tool), so you can see what memory your system can have.

http://crucial.com/index.aspx

If you don't want to buy from the Crucial website, you can always just use the Tool to see what RAM you can use and they buy similar type from a different maker.

I'm using some of their Performance RAM (Ballistix Tracer) in my Desktop at the moment. Works great :)