RAMS

[Don Soriano]

Question: What is the difference between PC2100, 2700,
3200, etc DDR memory? Can these be intermixed? I have two
512M PC3200 DDR memory (1 Gig total). Will there be a
significant improvement if I increase to 1.5G?

Don

 

[Grant]

Question: What is the difference between PC2100, 2700,
3200, etc DDR memory? Can these be intermixed? I have two
512M PC3200 DDR memory (1 Gig total). Will there be a
significant improvement if I increase to 1.5G?

Don

The difference is the speed the ram runs at. I'm pretty sure that you can't mix
different speeds with DDR ram.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Don;
All kinds of memory info @:
http://www.crucial.com/

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Question: What is the difference between PC2100, 2700,
3200, etc DDR memory?

The maximum speed they have been tested to run at.

Can these be intermixed?

In general, Windows XP is very fussy about RAM being very
perfectly matched. I wouldn't try to mix anything.

I have two
512M PC3200 DDR memory (1 Gig total). Will there be a
significant improvement if I increase to 1.5G?

Nobody can answer that question for you. In general, it depends
on what apps you run and how large are the files you open with
them. More RAM helps if it keeps you from using the page file; it
does almost nothing for you if you already don't use the page
file.

That said, most people running a common mix of business
applications find that good performance begins around 256MB.
Going much above that--certainly not more than 512MB--doesn't
help at all, since the page file is rarely, if ever used, if you
have 512MB.

So unless you run very demanding apps, you already have more RAM
than you make use of, and adding more will do nothing for you. On
the other hand, if, for example, you do things like editing large
photographic images, yes, more RAM can make a performance
difference.

 

[ThePainter]

If you mix different speed rams they all run at the speed
of the slowest.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

If you mix different speed rams they all run at the speed
of the slowest.

That is a widely-repeated statement, but it is not correct.

The so-called "speed" of RAM is not actually a speed, but a speed
*rating*. I's the speed that the RAM has been tested to run at
satisfactorily. The speed the RAM runs at is the speed the
motherboard has been set to run it at. If the speed it's been set
to run it at it is the slowest speed, then all of the RAM is
running at or below its rating and all is likely to be OK (unless
XP finds some other aspect of its mismatching that creates a
problem).

However, if the motherboard is set to run faster than the slowest
of the RAM speeds, it does *not* drop down to the slowest speed
(it has no way of even knowing what that is), but it will go
ahead and try to run at the set speed. The result is that the
slower RAM is likely to fail in use.

 

[Tom Lake]

However, if the motherboard is set to run faster than the slowest

of the RAM speeds, it does *not* drop down to the slowest speed
(it has no way of even knowing what that is), but it will go
ahead and try to run at the set speed. The result is that the
slower RAM is likely to fail in use.

That's not always true, either. My mobo (an MSI GNB Max) reads the SPD of
the RAM modules and DOES set its speed automatically based on the info
there. It will set its speed to the lowest speed RAM installed. This
feature can be overridden in the BIOS setup but I've found no compelling
reason to do so.

Tom Lake

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Ken;
My Motherboard Real Clock is 100 MHz. I have one stick of SDRAM PC100 (100 MHz) and two sticks
of SDRAM PC133 (133 MHz). As long as you have faster RAM it works fine.
Wes

In

 

[Alex Nichol]

Question: What is the difference between PC2100, 2700,
3200, etc DDR memory?

Different speeds of bus that they work with. You need the speed
appropriate to your machine.

Can these be intermixed?

Trying will almost certainly result in trouble, though it would
nominally be possible - running at the lowest speed concerned. But
Windows is *very* fussy about the exact matching of memory modules, and
I strongly advise you not to try

I have two
512M PC3200 DDR memory (1 Gig total). Will there be a
significant improvement if I increase to 1.5G?

Very probably not - unless you load a lot of extremely demanding
programs. Get the utility 'XP Page File Monitoring utility' - four from
the bottom of the XP Utilities section at www.dougknox.com - and use it
to find how much *actual* use the page file is getting. Unless that is
substantial - hundreds of MB; ignore the odd 10 or 20 of use that always
seems to happen - there will be no benefit at all in increasing RAM