DFI Ultra-D with Mixed Ram?

[essential]

Mobo: DFI Lan Party UT nForce4 Ultra-D
Current RAM: Corsair XMS PC3200 TwinX XL Plat (1gb - 2x512) (2-2-2-5)
New RAM: Corsair XMS PC3200 TwinX C2 Plat (2gb x 2x1024) (2-3-3-6)

I just purchased the 2gb of the Corsair C2, but have yet to put it in. People warned me not to mix RAM, but they are the same speed, just different timing. I thought about just ordering another 2gigs of the C2 Plat so I had 4 sticks of the same timing, but since Windows can't recognize 4gb anyway it would be a waste.

I'm just wondering what's the worst that can happen if mix the new RAM with the old RAM? The computer won't post? I could fry Windows? Is it at all possible I could add the new RAM to the current RAM and have everything just work?

What could actually happen.

Thanks.

Add: I don't OC at all. The RAM in there now was just placed in, and I have the latest DFI Bios, but otherwise I have never gone into Bios at all.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

What will most likely happen is that your old RAM will run at the looser timings of the new RAM.

There is an infinitesimally small chance combining the two will create a rip in time and space.

 

[essential]

Yea, I was thinking something like that. I emailed the Corsair people, and they said that I shouldn't match stuff, and I should basically just throw away the gig I have and just use the new two. They basically seemed like it would be the end of the world.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

well there's always a chance the two sets will be incompatible and wont work together, of which you would want to use the 2GB over the 1GB...

you will most likely have to back down on timings unless you can overclock/overvolt to get them stable, and you'll also have to end up using a 2T command rate as opposed to 1T, which is going to affect performance a little, although if you need more than 2GB you're definitely going to want to settle for that instead of having to tap into a hard drive pagefile

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i've had countless problems with this board and the memory. had problems with kingston ram and ocz ram. took me about 6 months of diagnose and stability testing to fix my problem.

if you can't get your mb to work with ur current ram after a fresh reformat and install then u should either get a new mb or upgrade

 

[Big Lar]

It actually "Should" work. LOUISSSSS, Kingston ram always throws fits on the nf4 DFI boards, I believe even in the specs for compatibility Kingston ram is not supported.

 

[Regalk]

You are asking for trouble - If you have already taken the trouble to set the ram timings with the old ram you may want to reset the ram to auto before using the new ram.
I use OCZ 2.5 3 3 7 DDR on both of my DFI ultra-Ds. One runs are 230 speeds and one only at 205-209 speeds same settings.
If your board fails to boot then you are in trouble - this is what happened to mine when I tried messing with OCZ gold and I had to do a hot bios swap to resurrect the board

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: essential
What could actually happen.

Your GF breaks up with you, your car develops 2 flat tires overnight and your dog poops in your favorite pair of shoes. Both left and right ones.

Alternately, your system will turn on and magically have more RAM.

 

[essential]

Originally posted by: Regalk
You are asking for trouble - If you have already taken the trouble to set the ram timings with the old ram you may want to reset the ram to auto before using the new ram.
I use OCZ 2.5 3 3 7 DDR on both of my DFI ultra-Ds. One runs are 230 speeds and one only at 205-209 speeds same settings.
If your board fails to boot then you are in trouble - this is what happened to mine when I tried messing with OCZ gold and I had to do a hot bios swap to resurrect the board

Well, I didn't set anything, I flashed to the latest Bios when they came out and haven't touched anything. I notice during boot it says 1T timings, but I poked around in Bios to look at the Ram options and didn't find where to set timings. I'll have to search around and find out exactly where to go to set it to auto prior to adding the new Ram.

 

[cbolt67]

I imagine you will get a lot of opinions on mixing RAM. While I'm not a fan. I've done it. IMO just put it in, set to Auto, and use Memtest to check stability. Start tweaking from there. It's great to have Memtest in the BIOS of your board. Use it.

 

[essential]

Is there a guide posted some where that shows me how to set timings/tweak things in Bios for this board? I am not an OCer by any means, so I don't know what I'm looking at when I'm in Bios. I just want to make sure I have everything set to Auto first.

Also, it would be nice if the guide showed where that Memtest thing is, I would def do that.

Thanks.

 

[cbolt67]

Memory tweaking with all the settings on this board can be tough. I think. I had a few issues when I upgraded to two sticks of 1GB OCZ. Luckily I just got on the OCZ forums and within an hour tech support had replied with the the settings for me to use. Thats why I'm an OCZ fanboy. That and any time a stick has gone out they have always RMA'ed it.

Anyway. You can run memtest by going into the BIOS. Go to the Genie BIOS. The last option in there is Memtest. Just enable it. Save and on reboot it will run. I always let it run a couple of complete passes just to unsure stability. You can also download Memtest. Burn it to a CD. Boot from that CD to run it.

Hope that helps.

 

[SirSnipe]

I have the same board in my brother's rig, I have 2x256mb corsair xms3200c2 and 2x512mb OCZ Gold 3200cas2 running together, Cas 2 @ 2-2-2-11, just had to lower my FSB oc to make it stable. It took a bit of tweaking and I had to switch the slots of the ram, but it works if you're patient