RAM question

[Afrodziac]

I am trying to upgrade the RAM in my system its currently two 512 sticks of pc3200 gaming memory. problem is I cant for the life of me remember what brand, it wasnt OCZ or Corsair, but they are definatley quality chips. my question is, if I go pick up another pair of 512mb's of another brand, will that in anyway negativley affect performancce?

[FFVII Forever]

Well in benchmarks for someo reason it has been proved that 2 Sticks of DDR run better then 4 of course thats 2x1025 versus 4x512 but anyways you coudl pick up two 1024's for under 200 but a decent set runs up to like 398 or so.

Mixing ram wont have a hugely drastic performance dip, but yeah even within the same brand sometimes can have minor affects that could only be measured by a benchmark. Just dont go with any fake or low end crap stick with it.

You can download a program called CPU-Z flip through the tabs it will most likley tell you who made the ram! http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpu-z-132.zip

[Afrodziac]

Dang do you ever sleep? lol, so your saying it's better to just start over and get two 1 gig sticks and sell my 512's?

[industrian]

http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive11-2004-9-72378.html

Originally Posted by Link posted above

Not having matching modules is always a little iffy. Memory module specifications include a long list of internal timings and other characteristics that are hardly ever mentioned in their descriptions on sellers' websites. It's best if all of your modules have the same part number from the same manufacturer.

Actually unless you are a Hardcore computer geek dont worry about matching your memory cards up. Quite honestly these days the timing of the RAM chips is all done through the chipset anyways so unless you are looking for that extra bit of performance you really dont need to worry too much about getting the same brand/part of RAM cards. HOWEVER....There are the very very very rare occasions that some RAM cards wont work together. Normally tho you can get around it by changing the timing or FSB speed.

Personally, I only buy matching RAM. Saves time and hassle. Find out what RAM you have right now by using hardware monitoring software, or by opening your case and looking at the sticks themselves. Then just buy whatever you want to buy.

And yeah. Apparently two sticks are better than four.

[FFVII Forever]

Originally Posted by Afrodziac

Dang do you ever sleep? lol, so your saying it's better to just start over and get two 1 gig sticks and sell my 512's?

No I dont sleep lol and do you ever stop asking hardware questions?... kidding Yeah anyways I mean as far as 4x512 versus 2x512 and 512mb of virtual ram goes the 4x512 ram wins, any properly made ddr ram is faster then not having enough but there would be a performace gain in having a set of 2x1024 OCZ DUal Channel sticks over 4x512. Only buy the dual channel stuff if your board is dual channel capable.

SO anyways if what u can afford is 2 more 512's its better then nothing but for maximum performance 2x1024 of the best crud u can afford! But definatly download CPU-Z in that link in my first post and find out what u have if your going for 4.

ALso buss spedd matters if your current sticks are PC2700 (333mhz) and your new sticks are PC3200 (400mhz) then the new sticks will only operate at 333mhz. WHile it wont hurt it make sure all the sticks are the same speed. You can only go as fast as your slowest stick.

[leo9986754]

I too also have a RAM question that I hope you guys can help me with. On my old computer, I currently have PC100-322-620 64MB RAM. I hav two extra RAM on my hands right now, but they are PC100-222-620 64MB RAM. Do you think I can add in the other one even tho the numbers are not quite the same?

[FFVII Forever]

Im assuming where talking about 168 pin sdram, PC100 means the clock speed of the ram is 100mhz as far as the rest of the number go not sure maybe it deterimnes the stock latency timing

[leo9986754]

Originally Posted by FFVII Forever

Im assuming where talking about 168 pin sdram, PC100 means the clock speed of the ram is 100mhz as far as the rest of the number go not sure maybe it deterimnes the stock latency timing

YES 100MHz. Everything on the RAM are the same, even the labels are both the same. They only difference is just the number at the end. And thx FFVII Forever for the lighting fast response. LOL you really dont sleep at all LOL according to someone else on the forum who posted that.

[leo9986754]

update* It works, at first I was afraid of th consequence with not correct RAM mix together but I did anyways. But the only thing about it, is that instead of 128MB of RAM I get, I got 124MB. I think this must been what happens due to the slight difference between the numbers.

[FFVII Forever]

This is quite normal seeing as how its not a perfect round measurment Question is does it count in mb or kb?

1 byte is ofcourse 8 bits (or 2 nibbles... and im not joking a nibble is 4 bits) anyways 1024 bytes is a kilobye 1024 kb is a megabyte and so on. Typically two 64s or 128 reads 131,000KB, i figured id roll with this 128,000KB comes out to 125 megabytes.

Eitherway dont worry about it its quite normal.

[leo9986754]

I right clicked on "My Computer" and looked at the specs. It said 124.0MB

[leo9986754]

I right clicked on "My Computer" and looked at the specs. It said 124.0MB

Originally Posted by FFVII Forever

Eitherway dont worry about it its quite normal.

Yea I figure I would at least lose some RAM even if both RAM are perfectly exacted.