EntropySink

Technical & Scientific => Hardware => Topic started by: A Bit of Fruit on January 09, 2008, 09:02:28 PM

Title: Need more ram
Post by: A Bit of Fruit on January 09, 2008, 09:02:28 PM
I have a single 512MB chip of DDR ram, I need more but do I need to worry about matching the speeds of my ram or anything like that? If so how do I find out the speed of my ram?

Should I get another 512 chip or a 1Gig chip?
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: KnuckleBuckett on January 09, 2008, 09:24:16 PM
Aren't you supposed to use memory in matched pairs?

Get 2, 1GB sticks.

Am I wrong? 
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: ober on January 09, 2008, 10:28:01 PM
You should match them and a decent chip will have the info on it.  I'm sure there are applications you can find that will tell you... I'm sure memtest86 would.

If you do get different latencies (CAS 2 instead of CAS 3 or something), make sure you put the faster one in the first slot.
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: KnuckleBuckett on January 09, 2008, 10:32:17 PM
Don't get different latencies.
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: A Bit of Fruit on January 09, 2008, 10:33:08 PM
so...can I have 2 different speed ram chips? I might just get another 512mb chip cause i dont wanna fork out alot of money
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: KnuckleBuckett on January 09, 2008, 10:42:47 PM
With diff latencies, it either does not work or runs at the slowest latencies.
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: ober on January 09, 2008, 10:52:50 PM
so...can I have 2 different speed ram chips? I might just get another 512mb chip cause i dont wanna fork out alot of money
Knuck, I think he means like PC3200 vs PC3700 or whatever.  You can, but you won't gain anything.  As with the latencies, it's only going to run as fast as the slowest chip.
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: KnuckleBuckett on January 09, 2008, 11:11:23 PM
ahhh
Title: Re: Need more ram
Post by: A Bit of Fruit on January 10, 2008, 07:30:46 AM
ok thats cool...as long as I can into a shop, ask for a 512Mb chip of DDR ram, put it in and it works then i'll be happy