Would someone please explain to me how I would know what my RAM limitations are for my motherboard?

[xboxist]

I have a vague understanding of RAM, but I'm looking for assurance before I buy some more.

RAM is only limited by the total amount that a motherboard can hold, correct? In my case this is 4GB. Could my motherboard hold any *speed* or RAM then? Right now I have some DDR400 (1 GB - 2x 512) in there. I was wondering if I am able to throw some DDR5XX or 6XX into the board *in place* of the old RAM?

Along that same note, what happens if I were to *add* two sticks of DDR5XX onto board to complement my existing two sticks of DDR400? Would the new ones run slower to match the 400's? Or would my computer not even accept this and fail to operate?

Also, is it strongly recommended that you only put the same exact brand of RAM into your computer, or is it much better these days to where you don't really have to worry about that?

I appreciate any response.

(if you need specs, please let me know. I am thinking that this is a general RAM question that applies to most every computer)

 

[moonsite]

If your motherboard support up to DDR400 and you are not overclocking, then the RAM would run at that speed, even if you add faster one, it will default to the slowest speed. Usually you can mix and match different brand, unless you are running dual channel.

 

[oldman420]

hey xbox
1, every chipset and thats what you would be affecting with ram ,supports up to a certian amount of system ram
so a board with a 3 gig capacity and 4 dimm slots would only be able to use 75% of 4 1 gig dimms. and may not run at all with that much
2, the speed of system ram will be the same for all dimms in the system regardless of their speed rating, this is independant of their rating and is determined in bios.
3, yes it is strongly reccomended to use the same brand and speed of dimms in all slots even to use matched and tested pairs is highly recomended.

in conclusion the faster the ram you have in your system the higher you can set the fsb and this increases system bandwidth and improves performance. it has been my personal expereince that for the amd line at least ddr 500 thats 450 mhz fsb is almost impossible to reach. i feel that right now till ddr2 comes mainstream ddr 400 is just fine and 500 is sooo expensive