I was hoping one of you knowledgeable hardware gurus could help me.
My father recently bought a Pentium 4 2Ghz based PC, with 384MB of PC800 RDRAM. I believe the motherboard he has in this system uses the Intel 850 chipset. My father wishes to use the computer mainly for business related applications, and as such does really not need 384MB of ram (128MB came free with the system due to a promotional offer).
I have a Pentium III 933Mhz PC with 128MB of PC800 ECC RDRAM which uses the Intel 820 chipset (yes I know, it sux!). Since my Dad is a pretty nice old dude, he has offered to give me 128MB of ram out of his system for free so I can upgrade to 256MB.
My questions are:
Dad's PC is made up of the following ram configuration - 2 x 128MB sticks & 2 x 64MB sticks. I believe this is because the 850 chipset uses dual ram banks and as such works best when their is an identical amount of ram in each bank. Is this correct?
If so, will I cause problems for my Dad's PC (such as severe slowdown, or perhaps even make the rest of the ram in bank 2 not work at all?) if I remove the 128MB stick out of 1 of the RAM banks? (i.e. this would leave 1 x 128MB and 1 x 64MB in one side, and 64MB in the other side). If this will cause problems, please let me know exactly how, and if the situation is rectifiable.
My second question relates to my 820 based PC that I will be putting the additional 128MB into. Since I already have a 128MB stick of ECC ram in there, will I need to disable ECC on the first stick to allow the non-ECC ram to function correctly along side it? Also I have heard that adding a second stick of ram in 820 systems actually increases latency (or slows the PC down in some way) due to it only having one ram channel.
As you can see I only have a hazy grasp on the above information and motherboards/ram in general, and I'm finding it all rather confusing. Any help you guys could give me would be most appreciated.
My father recently bought a Pentium 4 2Ghz based PC, with 384MB of PC800 RDRAM. I believe the motherboard he has in this system uses the Intel 850 chipset. My father wishes to use the computer mainly for business related applications, and as such does really not need 384MB of ram (128MB came free with the system due to a promotional offer).
I have a Pentium III 933Mhz PC with 128MB of PC800 ECC RDRAM which uses the Intel 820 chipset (yes I know, it sux!). Since my Dad is a pretty nice old dude, he has offered to give me 128MB of ram out of his system for free so I can upgrade to 256MB.
My questions are:
Dad's PC is made up of the following ram configuration - 2 x 128MB sticks & 2 x 64MB sticks. I believe this is because the 850 chipset uses dual ram banks and as such works best when their is an identical amount of ram in each bank. Is this correct?
If so, will I cause problems for my Dad's PC (such as severe slowdown, or perhaps even make the rest of the ram in bank 2 not work at all?) if I remove the 128MB stick out of 1 of the RAM banks? (i.e. this would leave 1 x 128MB and 1 x 64MB in one side, and 64MB in the other side). If this will cause problems, please let me know exactly how, and if the situation is rectifiable.
My second question relates to my 820 based PC that I will be putting the additional 128MB into. Since I already have a 128MB stick of ECC ram in there, will I need to disable ECC on the first stick to allow the non-ECC ram to function correctly along side it? Also I have heard that adding a second stick of ram in 820 systems actually increases latency (or slows the PC down in some way) due to it only having one ram channel.
As you can see I only have a hazy grasp on the above information and motherboards/ram in general, and I'm finding it all rather confusing. Any help you guys could give me would be most appreciated.
