Another PC Question/ Ram Matching

[Final Maxim]

ok about to order this ram.

currently in the pc is 512mb, ddr, 266mhz, cl2.5

the motherboard supports 2100 2700 3200.

now, im gonna be buying 1 gig of ram and trying to add my 512 to it, does the ram have to match up?

ie, my ram is 2100 266mhz, does the new ram have to be 1 gig 2100 266 mhz or will it run a 3200 400mhz with my 512

cheers again

 

[Evil Ally]

No, in most cases you can use faster ram than required. It will simply run at a slower speed. If you buy from Crucial you can use their memory selector tool and they will guarantee compatibility.

What motherboard and processor do you have? If you are installing a second stick you may have the opportunity to enable dual channel mode which could bump performance up depending on the processor. In this case, you generally need matching pairs.

 

[Evil Ally]

Just noticed your other thread. Some Athlon XP platforms support dual channel, but it's generally pointless unless you are also running onboard graphics. Try and have memory that matches the bus speed of the processor though, so for a 333Mhz bus speed use 333Mhz (or better) memory.

 

[Final Maxim]

motherboard is a MSI KT4AV
im currently bidding on a amd athlon 2800xp.

ive just bought the 3200 400mhz 1 gig ram cheers. its crucial and my 512 thats currently in is crucial. hopefully they run together ok

 

[thecremeegg]

you may find its more beneficial to just run the 1GB as its running faster, depends on how you use it though

 

[Final Maxim]

yea thats what i just been told aswell, the 2100 266mhz 1 gig ram was £2 MORE than a 3200 400mhz 1 gig :S dunno how they work that out

 

[Evil Ally]

Correct! The 2800XP has a 333Mhz bus. You would be limited to 266Mhz memory speed if you have the old 512MB in. The Crucial stuff is generally good quality though so you could force the old module to run at a faster speed in the bios, I bet it would work.

 

[Final Maxim]

ordered new harddrive aswell, woohoo lol http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113428/rb/0

 

[Chrisjk]

as evil ally sed the new ram can only run at the speed of the slowest stick i.e 266mhz. i'd have sed get 2 more 512mb sticks as there are more chances of issues than sumof the more expensive stciks

 

[thecremeegg]

quite the busy bee this month arent we?
this in your old system i assume?
and the slower ram is more expensive as its not made in such large quantities anymore, so the price rises. always happens with RAM

 

[Final Maxim]

quite the busy bee this month arent we?
this in your old system i assume?

lol indeed.

well i had planned to keep my 200gig harddrive, but ive nearly filled that already, so my 200 gig is going on the gf's pc n ill have the new 500

 

[Darren S]

quite the busy bee this month arent we?
this in your old system i assume?
and the slower ram is more expensive as its not made in such large quantities anymore, so the price rises. always happens with RAM

Yep - the pricing band tends to follow a 'U' shape. Mad expense from new, then becomes cheaper as it becomes more popular. Then it dies out and becomes more expensive again.

Some of the original HP-Compaq memory is a fortune for older (5 years+) servers, for example.

D.