Old Ram, Need Help.

[WildThane]

Ok, I have a 3 year old computer. I am wanting to add 2gb of ram . It currently has 2GB of DDR-SDRAM pc3200,200mhz. The motherboard is a ASUS A8N32-SLI. 4 x 184-pin DIMM sockets support unbufferred ECC/non-ECC DDR400/333/266 memory modules Supports up to 4 GB system memory. The problem is that I can not find that speed of ram that I already have. If I add a faster ram to what I have will it work. or to get 4 gb of ram, or will I have to put in all new. I can find 400mhz ram to add to my old 200mhz, will it work, or what should i do....thanks.

 

[brblx]

if you don't know the speed of the ram you already have, why are you telling us it's DDR400? (aka pc3200, supports 200mhz fsb)

as long as all the ram is at least as fast as the actual processor FSB, you should be fine. it doesn't matter what the ram's rating is, it's all going to to run at the same speed, which won't be faster than the frequency and timings of the slowest stick.

if this is an XP machine and isn't used for gaming, i wouldn't bother with the upgrade, though.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

You can use any unbuffered/non-ECC DDR, but not DDR2 or DDR3. DDR stands for Double Data Rate, so at 200MHz, the RAM is doing double duty, so effectively 400MHz, hence it being called DDR400. Some BIOS saying it is clocked at 200MHz. Obviously, PC3200/DDR400 is faster than DDR333. If your chipset or CPU doesn't go as fast as the RAM, the RAM will slow down and work at the maximum system speed.

 

[Blain]

As stated, your PC3200 is 400MHz DDR memory

 

[Emulex]

4gb of ram will cost more than a new mobo + processor

 

[WildThane]

OK...THANKS FOR THE HELP GUYS..