Do you guys recommend mixing 1 GB of PC 4400 (DDR 550) of Ram and adding an extra 2 GB of PC 3200 (DDR 400) and have total 3 GB in the system albeit running at the slower speed ?

2 reasons for me considering this is $$ and the dwindling availability of 184 Pin DDR memory

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

If you don't need the extra speed you would get if you use RAMs with the same speed and if those RAMs work together (which is not a given) why not? If this solution doesn't cost you anything and the overall performance of Windows will be better it is worth a try imo.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

I thought your ram speeds had to match else it causes conflicts and instability. I know that was the case many years ago. I would recommend matching your memory or just going faster overall. I would not mix and match. From how I understand how system memory works, and that fact you or on Mircosoft OS just seems like a possible nightmare to me.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

i wouldnt recommend mixing the ram speed due to stability and speed ... even if its stable it would suck up much on windows' resources running it

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

If you're mixing ram speeds, the faster ram should simply run at the slower speed, there ought not to be any conflicts.

And I think ram speeds give a very marginal perceptual increment in system performance. Come on, you're talking about milliseconds here. How much is an extra few milliseconds going to percolate into real-time system performance?

Chances are you will see a better improvement from adding that extra ram.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

^^^ I forgot about that. It will run at the lowest bus speed. Thinking about it is also on the Microsoft platform I would not be surprised if you get a lot of BSDs.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

new ram is backward compatable i.e. u can run higher frequency ram @ lower speeds, u can choose the settings in ur bios to which speed ur ram runs @

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

[quote=feather;458106]If you're mixing ram speeds, the faster ram should simply run at the slower speed, there ought not to be any conflicts.

And I think ram speeds give a very marginal perceptual increment in system performance. Come on, you're talking about milliseconds here. How much is an extra few milliseconds going to percolate into real-time system performance?

Chances are you will see a better improvement from adding that extra ram.[/quote]

That's actually what I was thinking too, I just wasn't sure about speed vs. performance differences at running at the lower clock speed vs. increasing the amount of available ram. Looks like a few interesting purchases coming up :twisted:

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

1. What motherboard is this for and what are the reviews from other users with similar questions?
2. They are right. You CAN have compatibility issues if your mobo isn't made to handle mixed speeds. Higher end mobos should have no problems but then again, it also depends on the brands of mixed memory that you're going to use.

My present motherboard has 3GB of RAM in it and still running in dual channel mode and I've bumped up the speeds on them so all is going quite well with this beast.

184-pin DDR ram is still quite accessible and very cheap.

If you get the wrong mixture, you'll notice that running 3GB of mixed ram may be a lot slower then if you used 2GB. I've read the horror stories. Good luck though.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

I's this 2 sticks of 1GB you are adding? If that was the case I'd probably take out the gig and replace it with the 2 1gig sticks and run it in Dual Channel mode.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

the mobo is an Asus P4C 800E Deluxe. Presently I have 2 x 512 MB Corsairs DDR500 in there and I was thinking of adding 2 x 1 GB sticks of G. Skill DDR400. They're cheap and I'm hoping the slower clock cycles wont affect speed as much considering there's 2 gb coming in.

I can also get DDR500 of a different brand but only 2 x 512 MB sticks for a total of 2 gigs ram. This will also be cheaper but considering its a Vista box its going in, I presume the 3 gig option would be better

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

I'd say if it works at the slower speed but also in dual channel then go for it. Even if the memory speed is slightly slower, Vista will love having the extra gig to play with.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

Which model of G.Skill will they be? There are two editions I believe that you can easily OC to them DDR500 speeds.

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

[quote=beanzncheez;462339]Which model of G.Skill will they be? There are two editions I believe that you can easily OC to them DDR500 speeds.[/quote]

This is the one

[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231047[/url]

btw I dont know why but vista on my box just does NOT like OC-ing, the OS doesnt even go past the boot screen in other mode than regular CPU speed

Re: FAO Beaner / Pickle / Tom / Arielus / Other PC Builders...

That's a pair that my brother was using on one system for a while. He had them bumped up quite a bit and all was working well. I think he still has the system but in the guest room in his house. Believe they were paired up with an ABIT board.