ram question

[sillyfresh]

I'm looking to upgrade my ram and i was wondering about something. I'm running a MSI Neo2-pls which has 4 slots for ram. If i was to buy 1 GB (2x512mb) would i still be able to keep my stick of 512 which i have now in the motherboard even though it has slower timings? or would it be better to just take it out and keep just the two sticks of new ram i will be buying. they are both pc3200 just the timings are not similar.

 

[RGPHNX]

Hi ,
You can most likely keep your old ram..just move it to the third ram slot (the one nearest to the front of the computer) and put your new ram in the # 1 & #2 slots.
Hope this helps
RGPHNX

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: sillyfresh
I'm looking to upgrade my ram and i was wondering about something. I'm running a MSI Neo2-pls which has 4 slots for ram. If i was to buy 1 GB (2x512mb) would i still be able to keep my stick of 512 which i have now in the motherboard even though it has slower timings? or would it be better to just take it out and keep just the two sticks of new ram i will be buying. they are both pc3200 just the timings are not similar.

The system will resort to the slowest SPD timings, assuming you have your SPD Detect set to AUTO in BIOS.

 

[WookE]

Keep your memory paired. If you add a third piece of RAM you will lose your dual channel memory functionality or more accurately retain your single channel functionality and significantly reduce the throughput. IMHO 1gig is all you need anyway as certain addressing issues can actually reduce performance for more than 1gig of memory.

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: WookE

Keep your memory paired. If you add a third piece of RAM you will lose your dual channel memory functionality or more accurately retain your single channel functionality and significantly reduce the throughput. IMHO 1gig is all you need anyway as certain addressing issues can actually reduce performance for more than 1gig of memory.

Most modern dual channel boards WILL still function in DC mode with three modules....check your manual.

 

[WookE]

Originally posted by: BadThad

Originally posted by: WookE

Keep your memory paired. If you add a third piece of RAM you will lose your dual channel memory functionality or more accurately retain your single channel functionality and significantly reduce the throughput. IMHO 1gig is all you need anyway as certain addressing issues can actually reduce performance for more than 1gig of memory.

Most modern dual channel boards WILL still function in DC mode with three modules....check your manual.

The way I understand this if you want to use three modules the unpaired module must equal the combined size of the paired modules. Example: two 512mb modules is slots 1 and 2 and a 1 gig module in slot three would retain dual channel functionality. Also the modules must be of the same timing, debth, width (8X32 etc.) or again you lose dual channel functionality. As he does not meet these requirements I stand by my original recommendation. Also the chipset he is using is one of the first to implement dual channel so by no means can be considered "most modern".

 

[mountcarlmore]

more throughput or not, that throughput doesnt translate into real world performance gains for an athlon xp. plus, newer games like bf2 will eat all the memory you can throw at them.

 

[WookE]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/abit-nf7_6.html

Here is a breakdown of dual channel benchmarks for similar hardware and xp processor.
You will see an approximate 18% read and 20% write performance gain across the board.
The XP while outdated and unable to process the HL2 doom3 ect. still benefits tremendously by removing the bottlenecking caused by single channel memory.

 

[sillyfresh]

thanks for all the responses i appreciate it. I was just wondering now since i ordered 1 gig of corsairs and it says the voltage should be 2.75v and my board is set to 2.5 right now will the board change itself when i stick in the new ram or would i have to set it to 2.75 manually.