dwarfy.mafia

Hi, I bought a new Cicero computer about a month ago. It has 512 pc3200 ddr ram. My computer has 2 slots for ram, and one is filled up by the 512. I want to upgrade my ram, and I have some questions.

1. Does it matter if I use two differnt brand names of ram in each of the 2 slots?

2. What is the differnce in PC3200, 3400 etc, will i notice any differnce in performance in the larger numbers?

3. Can I have one stick of DDR2 Ram, and the other wiht DDR Ram?

4. If i put a 1gb stick of ram in, will it constantly overheat, and will it be compatiable with the 512 Ram i currenlty have?

Thx alot for the help... And please note, I am just starting to get into computers, so please dont use terms that I probaly wouldent know.

jancz3rt

Well....please wait for more advice...will likely be better.

1. It depends, I have three brands inside. One OEM, Samsung and a TakeMS. Some motherboards do not like different brand memory modules being mixed. However it will work in most cases. Noone will tell you it's 100% safe to mix them. Always better to get identical modules.

2. PC3200 is supposed to handle 400Mhz speeds, while the PC3400 will take more and still work without a hitch.

3. Dunno about that but my guess is NO.

4. Well supposing you ude the same kind of ram (Pc3200), then there should not be a reason why it should not work. And NO it will not overheat constantly. Good luck man.

JAN

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Yeti

No. DDR is 184 pin and DDR2 is 240 pin so DDR2 won't physically fit.

double-dragon

You don't wanna get DDR2 anyway...it's just a fill-in before DDR3 is released. Not much performance difference IIRC.

If I were you I would buy a slot of 512mb pc3200 or 1gb pc3200 (if your mobo can is designed to take that much) depending on your budget.

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Praetor

Not really, no

No such thing as [marketed] PC3400 but the difference is that memory with higher rated clocks can be overclocked more. Yes, to get those speeds you need to overclock the memory (which will in some cases, overclock the system as well)

RAM will only overheat in very special circumstances, feel free to add that memory

Hehe, but when you dont know and we explain, then you learn


And on mobos that have both DDR and DDR2, you can use one or the other, not both

Well if you've got the nice CAS3 stuff there's a nice difference. Also, waiting for DDR3 mobos to come out ... especially when you'e got an older comp and looking to upgrade ... would mean a really long wait

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dwarfy.mafia

Thx for all the help. I have a few more questions though.

1. How do I know if my mobo can support DDR2 ram?

2. My friend told me that if i have 1 stick of 512, and 1GB, the 1GB will slow down to the 512 or somthing like that. Is that true?

yanedik

1. If your mobo use PC3200 all along, then your mobo doesn't support DDR2.
2. It's true if your ram have different speed. If one of your ram is pc3200 and another one pc2700 or less, then all your ram will run like the slower one.

Cromewell

This tells me it doesn't support DDR2. As for the speed thing, that doesn't apply to RAM size. If you bought a PC3200 stick and a PC2700 stick and installed them both the 3200 would run at 2700 speeds.

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dwarfy.mafia

So, If I have 1gb and 512, it will run like 1512 mb?

Praetor

No, it will run like 1536MB

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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI