Memory Speed Compatibility

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Ares6735

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Well I am new here and I needed an answer to these questions, I
couldn't really find anything related, probably because this question is so simple... but I am sort of a novice in comp building, modifying, etc so try not to judge me too harshly.

Well here goes, I am going to be coming into some money tomorow (it is my B-day) and I want to upgrade my memory, my motherboard supports PC2100, PC2700, and PC3200 (max). Right now I have 768 MB of PC2700 DDR RAM, I would like to upgrade to like 1 gig of PC3200 or maybe more depending on how much I want to spend. My real confusion however is if I can just add the gig of PC3200 memory or if I must take out the 2700? The only other thing I was puzzled about was whether or not I need to buy ECC memory or if it is acceptable to buy non-ECC memory. It seemed hard to find ECC memory for my specs and it was expensive... Thanks alot for any helpful info, I must say this community seems to have some really intelligent people.

PS: I built this computer (my first) with the help of my Uncle, which is why I don't know everything you might expect from a custom comp builder. I am going to be attempting to build my little step brother a gaming computer with money he has saved up, so I may need some advice from the community later on.... I was thinking that I could get my price limit and make a general layout, then present it to the community and see what everyone thinks... sound ok?

Sorry about the long post, I had a lot on my mind and needed to ask all these questions and getting a hold of anyone (my uncle, teachers, etc) that could help is a bit of a pain. So thanks in advance for any help that can be given.

Ares6735 (real name is Dan if anyone prefers it)
 
hello dan :) if you get a gig of pc3200 it will clock back to 2700 speeds if you leave your current ram in.I personally would get a gig of 3200 and remove the 2700.as far as ecc or non ecc your pc should use non ecc. ecc is usually used for servers and such. hope that helps
 
My Comp

I figured I could post my comp specs as well...

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000
CPU: Pentium 4 2.66 Ghz
Memory: 768 MB DDR PC2700
Sound: AC Realtek integrated Sound Card
Video Card: AGP 8x 256 MB GeForce 6800 GT
TDK DVDRW 16X
CD/DVD ROM
HD 1: 30 Gig EIDE
HD 2: 80 Gig EIDE
HD 3: 250 Gig SATA

The only faults I see right now are memory(obviously from my other post) and the CPU, which I was planning on upgrading with the same money. Not sure about the integrated sound, it has worked perfectly fine so far... Any tips appreciated.

One other note is my case, it was cheap and simple when I built the comp, but now it gets way too hot with the newer 6800GT and I need to buy a new case with more fans, better ventilation, etc. How much work will that be to transfer everything to another case and do I need to look for a certain type of case?
 
thanks

@ibbonkers
Hey, sorry I was writing my second post when you answered, but yes those answers helped quite a bit, but I wanna get your answer right... if I add 1 gig of 3200 to the 768 of 2700 than I will basicaly the 1 gig will run at the 2700 speed with the 768 and I will have wasted my money...?
 
well that depends on if you consider an extra gig of ram a waste... Also would this be your 3rd or 4th stick of Ram that you put into the mobo??? I don't think I've seen 768 ram sticks.. could be wrong. If it were me I would take out the 768 and put in the 1gb.
 
I have one stick of 512 and one stick of 256, I figure that if the 1 gig I plan to buy will only run at 3200 if I take out the two current sticks of memory then thats what I will do. Perhaps I can use the 2700 sticks in the computer I am going to build for my step brother...
 
You would get a better performance gain by getting rid of the pc 2700 RAM and just going with the 1g of pc 3200.

Your system would very rarely, if ever (depending on what you do with it) use more than 1g of RAM anyways, so the speed difference would make a bigger difference than the capacity difference.

PS. Unless you really don't like your step brother, don't put that pc 2700 RAM in his gaming computer :p
 
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