mixing 512MB with 1GB ram

OK, I have Googled the snot out this question and am getting no really solid answers. I have an HP a1600n runnning an Athlon dual processor with 4 slots for memory. Two are filled at the moment each with 512 DDR2-533 (PC2-4200) sticks for a total of 1GB.

I would like to buy an additional 2GB of ram. These are two sticks of 1GB each. I planned on taking out the 512s from slots 1 and 2 and replacing each slot with one stick of 1GB each, then placing the original two 512s in slots 3 and 4.

Most answers to the Google search say it will work, but one guy says his computer would restart on its own until he removed the smaller sticks. Other stories were similar but vague as to why the problem really occurred.

Well, what do you think? Am I better off going for the 2GB in slots 1 and 2and leaving the two original 512s gather dust?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

Ram is a tricky animal. For example it may well be that you buy your 2x 1Gb ram modules put then in your rig (without the other ram sticks) and your pc will fail to boot. Buying ram that is not compatible with a mobo is at the top of the gripe list.

In the first instance I would suggest trying to figure out what motherboard you have. Then you will be much better placed to succeed with the purchase of the 2x 1Gb ram sticks.

Broadly speaking, and in reply to your question, my answer would be as follows.

You currently have 2 512mb sticks and I suspect that your ram is set up in dual channel mode. If you want your ram to continue to work in dual channel mode then this will only work with matched pairs of ram modules. It may well be that all 4 sticks of ram will work together but firstly, not in dual channel and secondly, you will probably have to lower the ram settings and speed in the bios.

Personally, I think your odds of getting 4 sticks of ram of different sizes and probably from different manufacturers to work are slim to remote.

Good Luck

 

Your mobo (which is the same as mine : D) supports pc2-4200 and pc2-5300 RAM. I say give it a shot. Buy 2 1 gig sticks and see if they work with your current sticks. Best case you get 3 GB of RAM worst case you get 2 GB, either way you're set for gaming as far as memory goes.

 

I'm not sure that that is true... I've not had any trouble at all getting non-matched pairs to run in dual channel. (not that I have a huge sample size, but I would say "slim to none" isn't really an accurate representation) And even so, dual channel isn't really all it's cracked up to be. My guess is you'll be ok, regardless, you'll have 3Gb in at least single-channel mode and should give you a bit of a performance increase.

However, if your current RAM is slower than the new RAM, you might just use the 2Gb, since the faster RAM will clock down to the same speed as the slower RAM and there won't be a big increase in performance going from 2Gb to 3Gb. Try it out both ways and see if you can notice any difference.