Mixing ram. HELP!!!!

[newgeneral01]

I have windows vista and it rates my current ram (SLI READY 2gb at 5.1 x2 sticks 5 5 5 15) but recently i took out some of the ram from my friends computer that has a speed of 4 4 4 12. and my windows rated the ram at 4.5 all together. My asus AI overclock wont work anymore because it crashes from now on but before i can go 20% easy with no problem. My question is, do you think that the extra gig of ram worth it or not? Or is it bad for computer performance? PS use around 1gb in vista running nothing at all

 

[Crimsonite]

2GB is really the sweet spot right now but if you play a lot of graphic-instensive games or run apps of the similar sort then 4GB will do you a lot of good. Mixing RAM is a no-no as they usually have different IC's underneath plus the different methods of SPD, you're very likely to encounter instability issues.

You could try manually setting the memory timings to either 4-4-4-12 or 5-5-5-15 and make sure to set the voltage as well, like 2.1v~2.3v depending on the system stability state.

But I would recommend you to remove your friend's RAM and if you need more memory, get the exact same model with same sku#/revision.