Adding to existing memory

David_L6

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Joined
2 Jan 2005
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Want to add 2 X 512MB's to a system that currently has 2 X 256MB's. Does it matter which slots the larger DIMMS are in? i.e. Do I just add the 512's to the 2 available slots or should I install the 512's in the slots the 256's are currently in and move the 256's to the other 2 slots?

System is a Dell 8300 - P4 2.8GHz, DDR PC-3200 RAM.
 
Really shouldn't matter. I also had 2 256's and got 2 512's and I just put them in the avalible slots, works fine :)
 
Check the timing on the new vs old sticks. If the new ones have better timing you might want to just remove the old sticks. I did not see a big difference bewteen 1 gig and 1.5 gig on my machine so I just use the 2 faster sticks.
 
Thanks guys. I'm doing this for a friend. (I have 2 X 1GB sticks in my own computer.) I wasn't sure if it made a difference or not with P4 processors. I've seen posts about it being better to use 2 sticks rather than 4 but those posts were referring to machines with AMD processors.
 
sindustrial777 said:
Really shouldn't matter. I also had 2 256's and got 2 512's and I just put them in the available slots, works fine :)
actually - it DOES matter
I am a newbie in this area and I did alot of research
and found out that I had installed mine incorrectly
it make a hhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuge difference on performance if you use the right slots

need to determine you mother board
track it down on the net
and look it up
ie what stick goes where

hmmm . . .
you might wonder what a 'wrong' install did to me?
even though XP SAW all the memory
it cut it to single channel
I rearranged my sticks and got dual channel
 
channels are usually colour coded on mobos - so you probably do not need to look it up, but since it is counter intuitive you need to be aware....

For dual channel operation put matching sticks in opposite channels - IE one of your 512 sticks in green and the other in purple and ditto for the 256 sticks.... also be aware all sticks run at slowest timing - like Leejend said.
 
Mainframeguy said:
channels are usually colour coded on mobos - so you probably do not need to look it up, but since it is counter intuitive you need to be aware....

For dual channel operation put matching sticks in opposite channels - IE one of your 512 sticks in green and the other in purple and ditto for the 256 sticks.... also be aware all sticks run at slowest timing - like Leejend said.
I am far from an expert in this area
but I think you got it backwards
plus -= my mobo is not color coded
and even the manufacturer (gateway) did not know what I should do
they said "it did not matter" - they were WRONG
I found the board serial # etched - did a google - found the intel docs
and read it over and over till I understood it
then to test my research
I did it wrong
guess what?
wrong = single channel ops
correct = dual channel
and the performance was notable
again - imho - juts look up your own mobo model number
 
if you have matched ram and you intend to use dual chanel mode, you need one of your pair in one channel and the other of the pair in the other channel.

Single channel - just plug them in any way you please.
 

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