ram help please!!!!!!!!!

[bushwickbill]

In my rig I have 2 GB of Kingston of Ram. 1 stick is DDR 2 533Mhz, the other is DDR 2 667 Mhz. So my question is, What kind of problems could this cause being that the 667 stick is clocking down to 533?? Obviously if they were both 667 sticks I would have better performance, but they are both running at 533. Am I going to run into problems while gaming or other memory intensive things? I want to get new Ram when I can afford it, but I am trying to find out what kind of issues a person can have while having two sticks at difference speeds. I need to know all the problems that could happen, I am building an argument for my wife. She has to know why it is soo important to have two Ram sticks that are the same speed?? Thanx people.

 

[JustaGeek]

First of all - it might not be my business, but you should stop arguing with your wife... especially about something as trivial as RAM.

Now, you should be able to run it without problems at 533MHz. Set the voltage to the rating of the stick with the higher voltage, set the timings to the timings of the stick with more relaxed timings (e.g. 4-4-4-12, not 3-3-3-9), and run Orthos for 20 minutes.

If there is no errors in Orthos, you should be fine. If still not sure, run Memtest overnight.

Good luck!

 

[bushwickbill]

Thanx, but they are running fine at normal speeds. I am more concerned when I start maxing them out via overclocking.

 

[JustaGeek]

Well, not much room for overclocking with 533MHz memory.

I would try to keep them at their rated speeds - my RAM (G.Skill HZ's) is "highly overclockable", but the risk of overheating and decreased longevity is too great, IMHO (if I try to run them, for example, at 1000MHz with the naturally increased voltage, that is).

 

[NXIL]

Dear Bush,

my man, you have a video card that runs about $300 or so--a nice CPU that runs about $200....a solid motherboard, etc. Congrats! And, you have a wife! Rumor is that females do not talk to Anandtech Forum Members.......your are very fortunate......

Going from 533 to 800FSB RAM?

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...howdoc.aspx?i=2741&p=5

Note this is using a 7800GTX video card.....a few % difference, not huge at all.....

and

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/212152-28-ddr2-ddr2

I have 2 GB of DD2 533 memory and have thought about upgrading many times but every time I research it I come up with maybe a performance gain of 5-8 fps. The performance increase doesn't seem to justify spending the $300 or so to upgrade.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?page=4&t=760374

The benefit would be better ram, lol. It would give you that little extra performance that extra memory bandwidth can do. 1-5%, be it in FPS form, loading times, or w/e, thats about what going from DDR2 533 to DDR2 800 would do. This is asuming timings are 5-5-5-12 on both sticks.

So, in answer to your question, no problem running the 667 RAM at 533....the info to run at that speed is programmed in the SPD: CPU-Z will show you the timings at that speed on each ram module. If anything, your system will be more stable running 667 ram at 533...sorry!

As Justa said, keep them at their stock speeds: those modules are not designed for overclocking at all.

And, more importantly, as Justa said, I would strongly recommend you not argue with The Wife over something like this: save your powder, keep it dry. Dude, you have a rocking system....just like you I would always prefer to have two matched memory sticks, shiny heat spreaders, great timings, etc....I think we can get sort of compulsive about our PCs, and like you, I like mine being tuned and tweaked and tricked out, but, memory is cheap, wives are not. And, ex wives? Dude, you have no idea.

Instead of dropping the $$ on a RAM module, take her to a movie/dinner; if you have kids, get a sitter. Or, take her out for dinner, get her a book or magazine at Borders.....go on a walk with her, get some exercise while connecting with her....you'll get more FPS (!?) from that.

Put some PC upgrade money in your budget, save it, you'll have cash on hand to score bargains when they come along.

Hint to her about getting the RAM for Christmas, birthday, etc....and enjoy the system you have, which does rock, and, enjoy the wife even more--she sounds pretty cool, actually, if she even knows what RAM is. And, as painful as it may be, make a big Emotional Bank Account Deposit by letting her know she is right on this one....

GL

NXIL

PS: <Emotional Bank Account, if you are not familiar:

When it comes to improving and maintaining our relationships with others, Stephen Covey?s metaphor of the Emotional Bank Account is probably one of the most powerful ideas ever created for the development of interpersonal relationships. If you?ve never heard of this, it basically means that anyone with whom we have a relationship with, whether it be our coworkers, family or friends, we maintain a personal ?emotional? bank account with them. This account begins on a neutral balance. And just as with any bank account, we can make deposits and withdrawals. However, instead of dealing with units of monetary value, we deal with emotional units.

The emotional units that Covey speaks of are centered around trust. When we make emotional deposits into someone?s bank account, their fondness, trust, and confidence in us grows. And as a result our relationship develops and grows. If we can keep a positive reserve in our relationships, by making regular deposits, there will be greater tolerance for our mistakes and we?ll enjoy open communication with that person. On the contrary, when we make withdrawals and our balance becomes low or even overdrawn, bitterness, mistrust and discord develops. If we are to salvage the relationship, we must make a conscious effort to make regular deposits.

http://www.lifetrainingonline....ional-bank-account.htm

http://shopping.franklincovey....t=1&crc=&id=prod610022

EDIT: PS: and, like Justa said, it is truly none of my bidness about the wife etc, but, from my perspective, I totally see what he is saying and agree, and, I think I have expounded on it some....with all best wishes.....

 

[bushwickbill]

Holy Nxil, Thanx for the post. I agree with what you say. I will stick with what I got. I will be upgrading sometime soon:] Make the extra kick and maybe find some cheap fast ddr3. I just found out that my board supports it?(news to me) I just broke the 10k mark for 3DMark06 earlier today:10575 for the first time over 10k, At 2.7 GHZ. So I don't think getting up to 3.1 or 3.2GHZ will make that much of a diff really. That better hold me good when Dx10 Crysis ships? Cheers