Upgrading Memory Question

Hello Geeks.

I'm looking to upgrade the memory in my system (see sig for specs). Right now I have two sticks of 256MB of PC2700 RAM. I'm in a bit of a quandry. I'm going to have to, at the least, get rid of one of those sticks. At the most, I'm going to have to get rid of both. I'm looking at Crucial Memory for my purchase (they've been good to me in the past).

Is it better to ditch one stick and get a 1GB PC2700 replacement. Or is it better to ditch both sticks and get 2 512MB PC3200 replacements. The later is a cheaper option (by about 20 bucks or so), but it wastes the two sticks I do have. Is the PC3200 boost and 20 bucks-savings worth the waste of 2 sticks and the less overall memory (1GB vs. 1.256GB)? Or, is there a better option that I am not seeing?

Thanks for your advice.

 

Since your motherboard doesn't support 400mhz fsb there's no use in spending the money on pc3200 because it'll run at pc2700 speed. I'd buy 1ghz pc2700 and put it in with one of the 256's.

 

Thanks for the reply, Bluepickle. I didn't realize that I couldn't use pc3200. I guess I'll go with the 1GB stick.

 

One last thing I thought about yesterday (sorry to dredge up this post when the main question was answered): in the future, maybe a year or so from now, I am planning on building a new computer. I would keep my current computer as a music/movie server. Would it hurt to buy the PC3200 (it's the same price as the PC2700) even though the current mobo would not take advantage of the 400mhz fsb? I could then use the stick for the computer I build (which would more than likely support 400mhz fsb), and re-use the old 256MB stick.

Would that work?

 

That would work. It would just run at the slower speed. If there was a price difference I would say go for the pc2700. By the time you build a new system you might end up using DDR2. So your old memory would be of no use to you.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, there is no price difference...both about 150 bucks. I guess it's best to take the chance that I'll still be using that type of memory.

 

it will run at lower speeds but i think that the timings will run at pc3200 speeds still....plz correct me if im wrong. I also agree with dawnpatrol, if you plan on building a pc in the near future you will almost for sure be using ddr2 ram rather than normal ddr. But, if you look at today compated to older tech, we still use slower ram (ex u using pc2700) I think you would be just as well off buying the pc3200. Plus, modern mobos dont really use ddr2 and perform flawlessly with today's apps and will most likely work just as well for future programs and games, if you look at new tech still using today's knowledge (ex the new dell renegade, SLI, crossfire etc.)

 

I also agree, if it's the same price go for the pc3200, it won't hurt anything.

Personally, I feel in a couple of years ddr2 will have gone down the same road rambus has. I really don't base this thought on anything other than the fact it hasn't been very widely accepted and/or the problems with performance.

Just my $.02.

 

Cool. I really appreciate all the advice, folks. I remember now why I liked this board so much!

 

Right. So, I got my memory sticks in the mail yesterday.

It was one stick of 1gig PC3200 RAM.

When I first booted into Windows after loading up the memory, I got a black screen with an error (sorry, can't remember what it said). Rebooting, then booting into Linux was OK. I rebooted again, and tried Windows. This time it worked OK. However, a couple times during my Windows sessions, I have gotten a blue-screen with the "dumping-memory" error.

I ran MemTest, and got an error with that (copying word pairs, or something like that).

My questions are these: is there something I need to do to configure the RAM? Something in the BIOS? I was under the assumption, that it was OK to get the PC3200 RAM in that it would just run at the PC2700 speeds that my mobo supports. Was that a wrong assumption?

Thanks for your help.