They do this in the hope that you will buy your memory modules from them, in 
which case you will need to buy 2 modules of 512mb rather then just the one 
if they had already fitted a 512mb module.

Laptops in general suck as there is very little that you can do yourself 
about upgrading it, and little tricks like this is another way of the makers 
maximising their profits at the users expense.

Graham.

"TheBurgerMan" <TheBurgerMan@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:n691f.104964$Ph4.3194422@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
> The lower memory models are cheaper right now because of "quantities of 
> scale".  Usually it cost more to purchase with one DIMM.  In 2 years, the 
> same question will be asked about 512 MB DIMMS and 1 GB DIMMS  :)
>
> You can buy one 512 and swap one of the 256, then you will have an extra 
> 256 to keep or sell.
> -- 
> Thanks,
> TheBurgerMan
> at
> gmail.com
> --
> "Lee" <lbray5032@bellsouth.net> wrote in message 
> news:D%81f.13$0l.0@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
>>I have a Toshiba Satellite A45-S150 which has 2 slots for memory, mine 
>>presently has 512K memory installed in a pair of 256k memory sticks. My 
>>question is as follows.
>>
>> 1.  Why do the manufacturers install 2 sticks instead of just one?
>> with one stick of 512 it would be so much easier to upgrade say to 1 Gig 
>> of memory!
>>
>> 2.  Is it feasible just to buy 1 stick of 512 and leave one of the 256 
>> sticks in or do they have to match?
>>
>> Or is this just a way of making money in upgrades?
>>
>> Lee
>
>