Mixing RAM brands

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ponderosa

New Member
I have a stick of samsung 512 pc3200 and another stick of 512 seagate pc3200 can i plugem both into my asus m2n32-sli deluxe?
 
Usually you wouldn't expect to see the best results from mixing brands and certainly not from mixing different types or speeds. If both have the same default timings you would have to see how the system ran with them both installed together. Make sure to install them on separate channels to avoid possible problems if there is any noticable difference. Samsung on A1 - Seagate on B1
 
As he said, install on differnet channels and go look at each's settings in the bios. If they have the same timings, speed, and volts then you might be able to dual channel them. But otherwise there's nothing wrong with leaving them in seperate channels.
 
Yes you can put both in as long as they are the same type (SS/DS if one is single and the other is double it may beep or it might work), and in any channel you want. It will also be in dual channel if you install it in the right slot, all of your RAM runs at the same speed/timings.
 
When you are mixing memory by brand alone one thing to do is look over the specifications to see what the latency is for one or the other. That will help if you are adding ram to what is already installed. Even with that being the same some make boards will strongly favor certain brands of memory over others for some reason. Asus is noted to favor brands like Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, and a few others.

With two 512mb dimms you would want to utilize the dual channel mode unless you have other reasons to keep that disabled. If the Samsung in A1 and Seagate in B1 configuration fails you could try reversing to Seagate in A1 and Samsung in B1 there. If both configurations see problems then try each dimm alone to see which is the best to go with.
 
If you try to install them in dual channel mode there is a possibility that you will run into stability problems. I guess you won't know until you try. They will work in single channel mode for sure though. Pretty much all boards now have a SS/DS combo config that will work.
 
The main problem with the memory there is that it already is the "wrong type" to use to begin with for that model board. That model board runs DDR2 not DDR memory upto PC6400. A simple look at the board specifications is the first thing to do when going to buy memory. As seen at Asus,
Memory
Dual channel memory architecture
4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2-800/667/533, ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory​

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1163&l1=3&l2=101&l3=0
 
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