DDR PC2100 and PC3200 together

brav

Hi,
In one of my systems I currently have 512 PC3200 DDR.
Now I have just got hold of a PC2100 512 stick and I would like to stick it in beside the PC3200.

Now I know this will force the current PC3200 to run at the lower speed, but since I am effectively doubling the size of RAM will I see an increase or should I just stick with the PC3200.

Anyone ever try this and regret it/happy with it?

Thanks in advance.

Khannie

What do you do with the computer? Does it regularly hit the swap file? (if yes, extra ram, if no, leave ram out)

brav

Ya sorry forgot to say what its used for.

It is used for 4 main things:
* browsing the web(not much load but lots of windows open)
* Web server hosting a few test sites where I test out a few things on
* Watching videos, divx etc.
* Playing games, usually CS:S and DOD:S, This is the main place where I
want some improvement.

EDIT:
Also as I said it is constantly on running an apache server for the web site If that makes a difference


The specs of the machine are:
AMD 64 3200
Abit KV8pro
512 PC3200 DDR
6800gt 256mb
300gb sata drives
plus usual extras(tv card, wireless etc)
Win XP Pro

TerrorFirmer

I would just sell the 2100 stick and buy another 512 of 3200, Pc world only charge 50 for 512mb of most speeds both ddr and ddr2, decent brand too, I bought 512mb of ddr2 ram a few days ago and it even came with heatspreaders.

You'll live in the meantime with 512mb of ram for those games....I played Day of Defeat Source on 256mb and a Geforce 2 MX, so...:D

Khannie

I'd stick in the 2nd stick myself (or sell it for a 2nd pc3200 as was suggested). You'll notice the difference with gaming and it wont affect the other stuff you do.

brav

I went ahead and put it in anyway.

Didn't notice much of a difference anyway, Half life did reccommend to up the settings to high on almost everything.

Afterwards I went in to the bios and looked through the settings for the RAM.
It was on select speed from SPD, but then I seaid what if I select manually and put it from DDR 200 up to DDR333(slow module is DDR200 and old one was DDR400) and it worked no problem.

Did this just overclock it? Or is the RAM still running at DDR200?

Khannie

I'd hazard a guess that it's still running at ddr200. I can't see ram overclocking 66% like that without a whimper. To test, get memtest x86 and boot with it. It'll tell you what the ram is actually running at / stability.

8T8

You can also use CPU-Z to read the RAM speed from within Windows if it is running in DDR333 mode the Mhz should be clocked at 166Mhz.

The SPD table will tell you the timings of the RAM modules programmed into them.

There is a possibility the DIMM is a DDR400 DIMM but they just removed the timings for DDR400 from it and sell it as a DDR266.

brav

ya I used cpu-z and it said it was at 166Mhz.

Also I noticed incpu-z it said PC3200 for my old stick(which I expected) and PC2300 instead of PC2100 for the newer stick. Weird?

I must set it to DDR400 when I get home to see if it still works.

zilog_jones

Yeah do what Khannie said - check it's OK with memtest, and do 2 or 3 passes with it to be sure.

brav

should I increase the voltage a little if memtest shows it running at 200mhz?

How long does the test take by the way?

Khannie

The test takes a while....can't remember exactly, but I'd guess 30 minutes. If it passes the test 2 or 3 times, there's no need to up the voltage.