memory mixing

I have recent purchased a new computer for my children. It comes with 256 megs. of pc2700 memory. I have 512 megs of pc2100 memory in an old computer. My questions are twofold. The motherboard on the new computer states that it supports both 2100 and 2700 memory. Can I add the 512 megs of 2100 memory to the existing 256 meg of 2700? If not, would I gain performance by replacing the 256 megs of faster RAM with 512 megs of slower RAM? OP sys is XP2. Thank you for any consideration.

 

Your motherboard's manual would be the best point of reference in this case. IIRC PC2700 can be underclocked to PC2100. I know I ran PC3200 underclocked to PC2700 for a short time, and I had no troubles.

As for performance increases, you could experiment. If you were to get a copy of SANDRA (www.sisoftware.net) you could try different configurations of RAM (ie one stick, the other, or both) and run benchmarks on them with SANDRA to see just what performs the best.

 

Thanks, I did that and it is more then a little confusing. I'll follow that last bit though and try all possible combinations and then benchmark it. Appreciate the advice.

 

Can I add the 512 megs of 2100 memory to the existing 256 meg of 2700?
yes but your it will take your 256 down to the same speeds as the 2100.

 

ok. But won't it srill be better to have 768 megs operating at 2100 instead of 256 at 2700?

 

Some people would say yes some no, I personally would go for more ram.