mixing rams of different timings

I don't even have to look at the links to point that would be a major goof there. That will cause incompatibility errors right away. When adding memory to a system you want the closest match possible to avoid problems. The ideal additional memory is the same make and type from the same manufacturer's batch. Often people buy matched pairs for the best performance.

If you should end up with let's say DDR2 667 along with DDR2 533 you would keep the slower memory on the second channel if it even works having the faster memory slowed down. I could add one more thing here about the brand of memory there. If you have a pair already running run it! That's one of those lame brands to avoid. Crucial, Kingston. Corsiar, and OCZ(premium) are some of the top names to go with in general.
 
Your RAM will default to the slowest settings of all the RAM you have installed, you can't set the timings or speed for individual sticks of RAM, it's a global setting.

There's nothing wrong with GeIL, it's just like with hard drives. Some people just wont use certain brands because of a bad experience, which could happen with any brand.
 
Sounds good, I guess Ill try and sell of the 2 sticks I have already and just get two 1 gb sticks instead. If that fails Ill get two sticks of ram from the first link since I have that exact same ram already in my system.
 
Honesty, for the $3 difference, I'd still save my $3/stick and get the stuff you already have. If you were to get all of the slightly faster stuff the timing difference is so small that in the best case scenario you'll only see it on benchmarks.

Is there anything you're doing where you need 2GB of RAM or is it just a 'why not' thing?
 
I did an overall computer haul just recently and I was reading allot of reviews for R6 Vegas and allot of people say it is a ram hog, so I figured if games are already asking for 1 gb minimum and I just did a partial (mobo, proc, gpu) upgrade might as well go up to the next level for the ram.

Now if it wont help, and I can keep my dual channel, I can always get 1 stick now, see how it works, and if at all necessary just get another stick. If it isnt necessary, Id rather not have to put the money into it.
 
If you are running a newer then Socket 754 model board and planning on a Vista upgrade soon you may want the 2gb there. For running a gaming system or extensive use with multimedia like cranking up WMP often the 2gb total will smooth things out. But your best move is to match the existing memory with the same latency.

The alternative is to replace that with two 1gb dimms for the dual channel and smoother sailing with no jumping from dimm to dimm on the same channel. In some circumstances that is referred to as "memory holes" while usually having been seen on older systems.
 
Asus A8N-E mobo skt 939, AMD 3700+ 64, XFX 7900GT

thats what I upgraded to

In terms of memory, I either get a gig of the same ram I have for a total of 4x 512 sticks or I get 2 sticks of newer ram with better latency.

Also, I saw that they ddr 3500 and up and I was wondering if that would do anything for my system or if it would just revert to 3200 speeds?
 
It would revert to PC3200 speeds but it would allow you to overclock before having to adjust your RAM speed.
 
okay cool, thanks for the help guys.

I guess Ill order 2 of those sticks UNLESS, its possible to have my two original and a add-on 1 gb stick and still have the original 2x 512 sticks being run in dual channel. I remember one of my friends had 2x 256 sticks and 1 512 stick and he was running in dual channel mode, though Im not sure if I remember correctly.

anyways thanks again.
 
The safest plan for dual channel is to get 2x512MB. I don't think the controller on the 939s can dual channel 1GB & 2x512MB. New intel chipsets are able to, and the AM2 controller might be able to. I'd have to do some digging around to find out for sure.
 
To run a mix with a single 1gb dimm and two 512s you install the 1gb dimm in the first "A" dimm slot and the twin 512s on the B channel for the best results provided the 1gb is not slower. The ideal when going with additional 512s is to keep them the same even though it may run with the other latency. The better the match the better the overall performance results will be. You would be keeping it consistent then.

Matched pairs usually run a little more since they have been pretested to run with eash other. That's one item to think about when planning the next build down the line. I'm debating on what to do about a matched pair of Corsair xms series 512 dimms here that are PC3200 DDR400 dimms collecting dust on a shelf at the moment. The 2gb of Kingston value ram used to replace them has worked out better so far.
 
Good read, I guess Ill do a little more research and come back in a couple of days with a final series of questions and take a decision from there.

thanks again cromewell/eye
 
What happens when you have all 4 DIMMS populated with RAM? In many cases, your memory clock will drop to the second highest clock speed (provided the memory was able to run at the highest supported clock speed natively). Just look at any older motherboard manual for evidence of this.

With respect to the Athlon64 with on-die memory controlers, those running with "Venice/SanDiego" cores (or newer) will be able to run with all DIMM slots populated at the full speed.
Click to expand...

Im assuming from that, that if I use all four of my dimm slots that I shouldnt have any trouble with them running at full speed correct?
 
When all 4 dimms are the same speed and type better even with the same brand you shouldn't see any real problems come up. On pre Socket 939 boards like Socket A some of the boards saw the single mode when all dimm were filled. The Socket 754s were single channel only.

Since those days the boards auto detect memory and enable dual channel automatically when memory is installed on the secondary channel. With PC3200 dimms populating all four slots you won't see any backclocking just because all slots are filled. Whether you have a single 1gb dimm on the primary with two 512s on the secondary, four 512s, or two 1gb dimms one on each channel the memory is totaled for each channel.
 
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