Want to buy some more memory

[Daverino]

I put a computer together about two years ago and splurged on some top-of-the-line Corsair memory. I bought 1G of DDR2 PC2-8000 RAM. It was unnecessary for the computer that I put together, but it was fun to overclock it and see what timings I could get from it.

Anyhow, now 1G of memory doesn't hack it. I'd like to buy some more, but I also don't want to trash the memory I have because it's still pretty good. I'm considering buying two sticks of Corsair DDR2 PC2-8500 for an additional 2G of RAM. But I'd like to keep the memory overclocking that I have. I don't think it will be a problem, but are there any issues with mixing PC2-8000 and PC-8500 RAM? I would think that the system will be stable at whatever the slower RAM could manage, and I'd be losing a bit by keeping it in my machine. But not enough that I would care. But I don't know all the issues with mixing RAM so maybe there's something I don't know or appreciate.

Thanks

 

[myocardia]

You shouldn't lose anything, as long as you're buying faster RAM. And yeah, your PC8000 isn't magically gonna turn into PC8500, just because you mix it with PC8500. All of it will have to run @ the lower speeds/timings of the slowest RAM in the system. Also, assuming the RAM you have now is 2 x 512 MB (you never said), it isn't going to work at all, unless you install 1.5 GB per channel, from what I remember.

 

[Daverino]

Originally posted by: myocardia
You shouldn't lose anything, as long as you're buying faster RAM. And yeah, your PC8000 isn't magically gonna turn into PC8500, just because you mix it with PC8500. All of it will have to run @ the lower speeds/timings of the slowest RAM in the system. Also, assuming the RAM you have now is 2 x 512 MB (you never said), it isn't going to work at all, unless you install 1.5 GB per channel, from what I remember.

Yes I have 2x512 DIMMS. Why wouldn't I be able to run 2x512s and 2x1024s?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Daverino
Yes I have 2x512 DIMMS. Why wouldn't I be able to run 2x512s and 2x1024s?

You would, as long as you install it correctly, with 1.5 GB per channel.