Upgrading ram, help greatly appreciated

[oneforall]

Hi, I'm currently saving to upgrade my system by getting some more RAM. Right now I have a 512mb PC3200 DDR SDRAM Geil chip at 400MHz (at least I'm pretty sure its 400) Heres exactly what Everest says:

DIMM1: GeIL CL25-4-4DDR 400 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2.5-4-4-8 @ 200 MHz) (2.0-3-3-7 @ 166 MHz)

I'm looking to get this gig of Kingston ram to add to what I already have: 1GB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC 3-3-3 DIMM.

Since I don't know all that much about ram, the point of this thread is pretty much just to verify that this will work well with my computer, and to make sure there won't be any problems with this combination. The Kingston site listed this under my specific motherboard (ABIT KV8-Pro), so it should be compatible. The only other concern I have is that I've heard that it ram is faster when using two separate sticks if they are the same brand and the same amount of MB's. But, at the bottom of the page it says:

Virtually any configuration up to 2GB can be reached using any combination of Kingston's 128, 256, 512MB, and 1GB modules.

Does this mean the combination of two brands/sizes will work at full potential? If not, what do you reccomend? Thanks for the help!

By the way, I don't know if it makes a difference but I mainly use the computer for gaming (I'm gearing up for Quake 4)

 

[CanadaRAM]

The combination should work fine. There's no indication that your mobo supports Dual-channel, so you don't have to match pairs of RAM (it only has 2 sockets in any case) Good plan to use the manufacturer's configurator to check compatibility with your motherboard. The 1 Gb Kingston chip is a CAS Latency 3.0, compared to your existing 512 Mb CAS Latency 2.5. However, CL 2.5 1 GB modules are harder to find and more expensive. I don't know if that motherboard could take advantage of faster latency timing. P'rhaps someone who owns this model mobo could comment.

 

[oneforall]

Thanks for the reply, I was pretty sure it would be okay, I just wanted to double check with someone a little more knowledgeable before ordering. Thanks again.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Nope your CPU wont support dual channel (Socket 754 does not support dual channel)

Theirfor, I would get the cheapest stick of 512 meg ram you can find, your geil ram is at the worst possible timings already.

 

[oneforall]

Hm, thanks for reply Chris. Well here's a follow up question: Do you think it would be worth the extra money instead of getting another cheap 512 to get the kingston ram and just take the old geil chip out? That way, if I felt like upgrading again in the future I could get another gig of higher quality Kingston instead of being stuck with just a gig of crappier geil. What're your thoughts?

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Well for me personally I would say not really.

However, this is also dependant on how much money you have.

 

[oneforall]

So I guess you're saying the jump from CAS 2.5 to CAS 3 wouldn't warrant the almost double cost of the Kingston chip? I don't know much about ram personally so I have no frame of reference of how much of a boost it would get me. And come to think of it, it's probably more likely that I would get a whole new system before upgrading my RAM once more after this. I think I probably will just go with another 512. The money I'm saving will give me a start on a video card upgrade. I thinkin a 6600gt maybe. (Right now I'm on a 9600se, I don't think Quake 4 would like that very much Anyway, you've been a big help Chris, any last comments or suggestions?