Need your Opinions - RAM

[sjfilly]

Hi Guys,

Need to know your opinions on this one and potentially
the pros and cons...

I've just bought 1 gig of RAM, 2 sticks of 512mb
at 533mhz.
This is replacing 512mb, 2 stick of 256mb
at 400mhz.

I understand that if I slot all these types together
that the RAM will only run at the slower speed (400mhz).

Is it better to keep the RAM at 1gig with the faster speed
or increase the RAM to 1.5gig at the slower speed of 400mhz.

Thanks for your opinions and time.

 

[Zanjo]

Do you have DDR2 support on your mobo?

 

[sjfilly]

Its DDR2.

 

[waynejkruse10]

Im not 100% sure but i think you might be trying to put DDR2 ram into a DDR1 motherboard which will not work. Tell me your processor (Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 LGA 775) by downloading CPUZ if you dont know so i can work out what to do.

Is the motherboard DDR2 or the Ram DDR2? Im unsure if DDR ever came in 400mhz varieties. Anyway, still download CPUZ and get some more info to me.

Wayne

 

[sjfilly]

My apologies for the long post!
Hope this is the info your after, I quite don't understand it
myself...
The 2 remaining sticks of RAM are:
256mb PC2-3200U (the BIOS at the time indicated 400mhz).
Below is the current RAM at 1gig.


Number of CPUs 2 (1 Physical)

CPU #1
APIC ID 0
Name Intel Pentium 4 520
Code name Prescott
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
Family/Model/Stepping F34
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Package LGA775
Core Stepping D0
Technology 90nm
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
Features
Clock Speed 2793.0 MHz
Clock multiplier x14.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 199.5 MHz
Bus Speed 798.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2800 MHz
L1 Data Cache 16 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kµops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 1024 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed 2793.0 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits


Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel i915P/i915G rev. B1
Southbridge Intel 82801FB (ICH6) rev. 03
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Frequency 266.0 MHz (3:4)
CAS# 4.0
RAS# to CAS# 4
RAS# Precharge 4
Cycle Time (tRAS) 12


Memory SPD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM #1

General
Memory type DDR2-SDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) (0000000000000000)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC4300 (266 MHz)
Part number
Manufacturing date Week 00/Year 00

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 200 266 266
CAS# 3.0 4.0 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 3 4 4
RAS# Precharge 3 4 4
TRAS# 9 12 12


DIMM #3

General
Memory type DDR2-SDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) (0000000000000000)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC4300 (266 MHz)
Part number
Manufacturing date Week 00/Year 00

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 200 266 266
CAS# 3.0 4.0 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 3 4 4
RAS# Precharge 3 4 4
TRAS# 9 12 12

 

[waynejkruse10]

that was very insightful, DDR 2 was made in 400mhz variety. To answer your first question, its best to put in the whole 1.5gb at the slower rate as the CPU FSB is 800mhz (200mhz Quad Pumped) which works best with Ram running at DDR/DDR2 400mhz (200mhz DDR) so running the ram at its normal speed (DDR2 533) wouldnt give you any performance benefits.

Wayne

 

[sjfilly]

Thanks for the tip.
Appareciate your time.


Cheers.