How to determine right memory for a motherboard

[millervt]

I recently got a barebones kit that included the PC CHips A13G+ GEforce6100 motherboard, along with 1 GB of slow pc4200 memory. I want to upgrade the memory, but I get confused when I go to newegg and find all kinds of nearly-identical 1GB offerings (I'm looking at 2X1GB of dual channel PC6400 as a good "sweet spot" for my budget). However, when I go to corsair, patriot, etc., and try to find the motherboard so I can confirm which exact memory part number is compatable, it isn't shown. Should I just get one set of sticks and assume that I can make it work at some sort of settings? Of course the PC CHips/ecs web site has nothing very specific on it (supports up to 800mhz dual channel ddr2...). Thanks for any suggestions..

 

[Steve]

Try looking up the ECS equivalent, either the ECS GeForce6100SM-M (V1.0/1.0A) or the GeForce6100SM-M2 (V1.0A)

 

[Mondoman]

miller - depending on your CPU, PC2-4200 (DDR2-533) may be plenty fast. Unless your CPU is running a 1333MHz FSB, you won't really be able to use the speed of faster RAM. Assuming your 1GB is 2x512MB running in dual-channel mode, at DDR2-533 speed its datarate is 1066MHz, which is enough to saturate the throughput of either an 800MHz FSB (e.g. e2xxx and e4xxx CPUs) or a 1066MHz FSB (earlier e6xxx CPUs).
For buying new RAM, the key thing is to make sure to buy RAM rated at the DDR2 standard 1.8V. Many manufacturers sell "pre-overclocked" RAM requiring voltages as high as 2.2V -- these are *much* more likely to have compatibility problems with lower-end chipsets such as those on your MB.