Mixing PC3200 with PC4200 DDR2 RAM

[Mizuchi]

Simply put, I caught the Dell Dimension 8400 deal yesterday. I didn't think the upgrade from 2x256MB to 2x512 ($70 or so) was a good deal, as I knew RAM prices were dropping, but I still want at least 1GB.

So, I go to Pricegrabber and there's hardly any DDR2 RAM at PC3200. The P4 has a FSB of 800 MHz and dual channel is standard on mobos by now... I see a lot of the PC4200 though, and for a modest price of $115 for 2x512MB.

Will there be any complications keeping the 2x256MB modules @ PC3200 installed and while adding the 2x512MB @ PC4200? There are 4 DIMM slots, so that's not a prob.



For gee-wiz... Upgrades I did opt for: 6800 vanilla, $180, over the X300 SE ($235 card vs a $60 card, seemed a fair trade). 160GB NCQ Seagate, 50 cent/GB extra. Didn't get the $100 MIR offer though. Added the APC UPS for $64, since that was a good deal and I didn't have one and I recently moved to Florida, with all it's storms.

 

[Shortass]

I'm not entirely sure if it will work fine if 2 of the sticks are DDR2 (sort of got confused in your post), but if you have memory that's rated at a higher speed, it will merely be clocked at the speed set of your lowest RAM sticks. So all 4 will run at Pc3200, not to mention (I believe) 2T command rate (bad times). I think you'd be better off getting simply a gig of PC4200. A gig is really all you need, and running at 1T and at the PC4200 speeds will more than make up for the loss of 512megs of memory.

 

[CheesePoofs]

I don't believe any PC3200 DDR2 exists. You sure it isn't DDR1 you have in that system?

 

[shoRunner]

ddr2 pc3200 and the command rate changing to 2T is much more of a factor on AMD64 systems then p4's and no its not a big deal with putting in faster ram

 

[Mizuchi]

I must be a total newb, 'cause I don't understand timings at all, except that lower is better.

The limit of what I know is that RAM bandwidth is ultimately controlled by the processor's FSB. Also, I thought that having more RAM was better than having faster RAM, price vs performance wise.

This contradicts my beliefs, so could you provide a better explanation?

 

[andy nowotny]

they are not compatible

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: andy nowotny
they are not compatible

why would you say that?

 

[Mizuchi]

This is where I got my Dell deal from: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1566262&enterthread=y

 

[stevty2889]

There should be no problem using the PC4200 DDR2, it will just run at the speed of the PC3200 anyway, even by itself, so there would be no problem using it with the ram already in there. And to the person that said something about the 2T command rate with 4 sticks of ram..that doesn't apply to Intel chipsets, it's a limit of the onboard memory contorler on the A64, which is being fixed in the Venice core..