Combining Different Memory?

[-seek-]

Hello, I am thinking about upgrading my system with a new mother board (ASUS P4C800 Deluxe) and some new memory. I was wondering... is it possible to run two different types of memory on this thing? They both meet the requirements for the MB but have different FBS and CAS speeds... oh and one is made my Kingston and the other is Corsair.

Any help will be much appreciated!

-thx

 

[PseudoKiller]

not a good idea at all... good rule is to only run the same type of RAM. Could burn out your MB... but thats an extreme senario. Not a good idea and since RAM is so cheap good thing to do it run the same make model and type ... IMO

 

[-seek-]

not a good idea at all... good rule is to only run the same type of RAM. Could burn out your MB... but thats an extreme senario. Not a good idea and since RAM is so cheap good thing to do it run the same make model and type ... IMO

yeah, i guess your right... they would be running at different speeds... that cant be good on the system... ok thx

 

[PseudoKiller]

btw ... Welcome to the NTFS Forums. Hope youll keep coming around.

 

[-seek-]

thx for the welcome...

 

[Reg]

I don't think you would burn out your motherboard, but you will notice major performance decreases. Generally, you want your RAM to match your processors FSB. For example, if you have a new DDR motherboard and a processor that is running at say, 333 FSB (and your motherboard supports it at that speed), then your RAM would need to be PC2700 (DDR333). As far as CAS latency is concerned, you want them to match. Otherwise, what will happen is that the faster of your RAM will slow down to match the slower of the RAM (CAS 2.5 and CAS 3 in the same box will both run at CAS 3).

 

[PseudoKiller]

I don't think you would burn out your motherboard, but you will notice major performance decreases.

Could burn out your MB... but thats an extreme senario.

read the above...

 

[GoNz0]

just to clear things up, mixed ram will run at the lowest rated stick, the corsair will run fine at lower speeds, i have a stick of 333fsb and a stick of 400fsb corsair in my machine. theres no burning out to be done if setting by SPD as it will refuse point blank to bump ram above its rating. delete the page file by setting it to zero b4 you shutdown to install the new stick and you will have no problems, just remember to set a new page file once booted with the extra ram in.

 

[-seek-]

ok, thx for the help... i have another Q for you guys tho: im thinking of buying some new memory and its "PC3200 DDR 64x64 (184-pin) unbuffer"

now what in wanting to know is what does the "64x64" and "unbuffer" mean in that description? sorry for asking but i've looked all over yahoo and still can't find an answer.

 

[LeeJend]

Unbuffered means that the RAM chip outputs drive the MB directly. That may keep you from installing more than 2 memory stick. Depends on RAM and MB.

The 64 x 64 is the way the data is stored on the RAM chips. They shouldn't post it, it just confuses people.

 

[Sazar]

just to clear things up, mixed ram will run at the lowest rated stick, the corsair will run fine at lower speeds, i have a stick of 333fsb and a stick of 400fsb corsair in my machine. theres no burning out to be done if setting by SPD as it will refuse point blank to bump ram above its rating. delete the page file by setting it to zero b4 you shutdown to install the new stick and you will have no problems, just remember to set a new page file once booted with the extra ram in.

I concur...

generally it will run automatically @ the lowest rated stick..

the way motherboards are designed it is unlikely to burn out your board except in a freak instance... the multiple capacitors and the like you see are to regulate signals on the board..

however as has been suggest the best thing to do is to get 2 sticks of similar memory since then you won't be looking for a sweet spot performance wise between 2 different types...

however... if you are using a board that is finicky about memory it may not boot up... my socket 478 mobo would not have liked it were I to have used low end ddr400 memory and had I mixed things it may not have booted up... you are informed of this in the user manual itself...

your board seems quite nice... why bother with cheap memory get some nice sticks of corsair XMS or something like that and go with it... dual channel on an intel board is better than on amd socket A boards...

I am presuming you have an 875 board btw nice purchase... if I remember correctly it has an optional wireless lan add-on...

-edit-

don't buy registered memory either btw

 

[efs555]

Question regarding my new Dell 8400 (dimension)

Hello everyone. I have a question for you all. I purchased Dell's new dimension 8400 for which I chose all the components to use. I had $1500 to work with so here are the specs: 3.0 Ghz p4 with HTtech. 800Mhz FSB; 512 MB of Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533 Mhz. 128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE video card.

My question is why, when I run Halo for PC, does it still hang a bit on the highest settings? Also for Hitman Contracts? Admittedly, it performs much better than my old p4 1.6, but I assumed that this would take care of any hang-ups? I would appreciate your advice, Thanks!

Buff.

 

[vern]

It should be theoritically possible to mix and match memory that the motherboard supports. The faster memory will just clock down. Experience tells a different story though. I bought a 512MB stick of RAM for my AMD rig and installed it, and the system was totally unstable. I expected the PC3200 memory to clock down to PC2700 and indeed it did, but not to a usable system. Both sticks worked fine separately, but not together. Both sticks of memory were also from different companies, Nanya and Kingmax. I got the memory RMA'ed and I'll have to look for identical memory from Nanya and see if I have any luck.

 

[ElementalDragon]

efs555: first off... why did you post that in here? that has just about nothing to do with this thread at all, besides possibly helping. Second, i highly doubt it's DDR2, since that is heavily on the expensive side and still not very supported. Third, PCI Express still has it's bugs too. it's probably just the "not so perfect" hardware that's causing the slowdown.
Next time, please make your own NEW thread when you have a question. don't post your question in someone else's help thread, especially when it has nothing to do with the topic of the thread. i don't mean to sound rude, but that's kinda disrespectful.

As for my input about -seek-'s question, i agree with some of the others in here. Normally when you run sticks of different RAM with different speeds, it will run at the speed of the slowest stick of RAM. Using the same type, speed, and often make of RAM will be a much better choice.