System Memory RAM

[aaronjbc123]

Right now I have a 512piece and 256 piece in, and I only have two slots. I recently bought a 1gig stick of RAM, and will install it later. Obviously I'll replace the 256 with the 1gig one. But the 1gig is PC3200, and the 512 is PC2700. a few people have told me that I'm better off just putting the 1gig in and ditching the 512 one, because it will run slower. So should I put both the 512 and 1gig in, or just the 1gig?

 

[BSEagle1]

I've never done any testing myself on it, but I would take out the 512 and put in the 1 gig in it's place assuming those two are the same speed.

Thing is, your RAM will only run as fast as the slowest module. So the 1 gig stick will be running at PC2700 instead of PC3200 if you pair it with the 512.

You could always download a benchmark program and test it both ways, though.

 

[aaronjbc123]

Right I know that, but is there a noticeable difference between 3200 and 2700? Is it more of a difference between the 500mb of memory?

 

[dnuggett]

There will be no noticeable difference, unless you are one of the less than 1% of users who this will make an actual difference to time/work wise. Since you haven't said anything about your usage patterns I'm going to safely assume you don't fall into that category.

I would not sacrifce the 512 stick to get a small speed bump, it just not worth it espceially if you will actually use the additional RAM you are installing. I'm not sure why BSEeagle1 would recommend you capture that very small almost un-noticeable speed gain and lose capacity.

 

[cubby1223]

Benchmarks long time ago showed that 266fsb or 333fsb athlons & 533fsb p4's performed slower with ddr400 speeds versus ddr333. So unless you know of someone who is willing to buy your old ram, I'd run with the 1.5gb ram.

 

[dnuggett]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Benchmarks long time ago showed that 266fsb or 333fsb athlons & 533fsb p4's performed slower with ddr400 speeds versus ddr333. So unless you know of someone who is willing to buy your old ram, I'd run with the 1.5gb ram.

Of course the benches said they perform slower. The point is 99% of users wouldn't be able to tell if you switched those RAM speeds out while they were out. They'd never know the difference. If our OP is one of those guys that would then it may not be the right choice for him. I'm willing to be he's a 99% er though. I like my odds.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: aaronjbc123
Right now I have a 512piece and 256 piece in, and I only have two slots. I recently bought a 1gig stick of RAM, and will install it later. Obviously I'll replace the 256 with the 1gig one. But the 1gig is PC3200, and the 512 is PC2700. a few people have told me that I'm better off just putting the 1gig in and ditching the 512 one, because it will run slower. So should I put both the 512 and 1gig in, or just the 1gig?

It might help if you knew what motherboard and CPU you were using..