More RAM or higher frequency?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Lazlow, Jul 17, 2007.

  1. Lazlow

    Lazlow Private E-2

    Hey, I just received 2x 1gig sticks to put into my PC. Currently it is using 2x512mb as RAM. Now this new RAM has a frequency of 400mhz compared to the 200mhz on my previous stuff. My motherboard has space for 3 sticks of RAM, so the question I have is:

    Should I put one of the previous 512mb sticks in with the new 2Gb or will the fact that the new stuff will then only run at half the frequency cancel out the extra RAM?

    Thank you!
     
  2. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    Putting a 512MB stick in will underclock your new RAM. I wouldn't bother. You will be best to have only the matched pair, as you won't have to underclock it, and it will put them into dual-channel mode, doubling your memory bandwidth. (Depending on your motherboard)

    Plus two gigs should be sufficient for an XP machine with an average application load.
     
  3. Lazlow

    Lazlow Private E-2

    Thanks very much!
     
  4. studiot

    studiot MajorGeek

    Hi, Lazlow.

    I'm not sure what you think will happen if you add faster RAM to a system.

    The speed of things is controlled by the processor NOT the RAM.

    So unless you have also changed the processor your new RAM will still operate at the old speed.
    In that case add the extra 512.
    You may run into motherboard/Windows XP limit problems recognising RAM over 2G. Bear this in mind also if you are ever tempted to fill the third slot.
     
  5. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    True, but if the mobo supports it, won't the new RAM won't automatically run at its rated speed? It's always worked that way for me on newer boards.
     
  6. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    That is speculation, unless you know the actual hardware specifications, and they have yet to be listed.

    Can the original poster please give all hardware details please?
     
  7. studiot

    studiot MajorGeek

    Can't see why this is so contentious.

    Surely if the processor continues to operate at the original speed, whatever it may be, and the new memory now operates at twice the original speed, data will appear in the memory before the processor has issued it, clearly a ridiculous contradiction.

    Any memory operates at the speed it is 'told' to by the system, if it operates at all.
     
  8. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    There is no contention,. You simply cannot be accurate in what you are saying without knowing the system specs. We don't know if its DDR, or PC-100 (obviously its not), or anything else.
    Its all cleared up when we get the system specs regardless. Until then, its speculation.

    If I have an Athlon 64 with PC 2100 in it, it still runs at the same speed, CPU wise.

    If I drop PC3200 into it, the memory runs at double the speed, and I see a nice benefit.

    If I run an AMD64 X2 w PC3500 DDR (my machine), and tweak my BIOS settings, I get a cpu that runs at the same speed, and ram that runs at 433mhz.

    Without knowing the system specs, many scenarios can be drawn and debated.

    None can be confirmed.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 17, 2007
  9. Mada_Milty

    Mada_Milty MajorGeek

    This is what I was thinking. confused I'm pretty sure I didn't hallucinate it when I switched my old machine from PC2600 to PC3200, and it ran at 400MHz w/o needing to adjust the bus speeds/cpu clock.

    (sorry if that sounded belligerent, it really wasn't meant to be)
     
  10. Lazlow

    Lazlow Private E-2

    Whoa! Appears this got a bit heated whilst I was gone. Sorry for the late reply. Heres the spec of the system I put the RAM into.

    AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2GHz
    ASUS K8V
    The new RAM is DDR PC3200

    Anything else you guys want to know?

    Do I need to do anything to make it run better?
     
  11. Adrynalyne

    Adrynalyne Guest

    Run that PC3200. You will get a decent performance increase on top of the increase from just having more memory.

    Dont run the PC2100--as Mada said, it will bottleneck the rest of your ram.
     
  12. studiot

    studiot MajorGeek

    I'm not arguing with that advice it's good.

    Not sure about the supplier who put pc2100 with a 3.2G Athlon 64, though. Sometimes you find that the memory is apparently underspeced for the system, because the manufacturer has test selected from a large batch.

    Don't know where you are but PC2100 modules now fetch more than PC3200 ones in the UK. you may recover much of the upgrade cost by selling the old modules, perhaps on Ebay.
     

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