Memory question

[Brian Wescombe]

My motherboard supports 1GB of dual-channel RAM at 400MHz, but only allows
333MHz clock when using more than 1GB. Would there be an advantage to using
more memory but at a slightly lower speed? Presumably the page file access
would be reduced. The 400Mhz speed matches the FSB of my processor

Thanks in advance

 

[Dave B.]

I would take more ram over the reduced speed any day.

 

[Brian Wescombe]

ok, thanks. Looks like a memory upgrade is in order then!

 

[Richard Urban]

I did a test of just that about a year ago. Two gig of RAM at 333 vs. one
gig at 400.

The two gig at 333 won the day.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Brian Wescombe]

How does using 333 affect the CPU/Memory bus clock ratio?

 

[Richard Urban]

Actually, I lied! After going back to my notes, here is what I actually did.

I had my computer set up with 1 gig of PC3200. I was getting heavily into
virtualization and 1 gig of RAM was insufficient. I did have 2-1 gig sticks
of PC2100 (133-266). I wanted to see if running with the 2 gig of PC2100 was
better than 1 gig of PC3200.

For using VirtualPC and VMWare Workstation, it certainly made a difference.
The increased RAM also must have made up for the slower speed, as I really
did not notice any downside when using Windows XP in general.

On my computer I set the bios for user settings instead of by SPD. I set the
CPU at 400 mhz and the RAM at 133/266 mhz.


--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!