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I need help understanding RAM please?

  • 11-12-2008 10:06am
    #1
    Sniipe
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,933 ✭✭✭


    I've run CPU-Z on two work machines. I basically want to take RAM from one machine and give it to the other.

    Current machine shows the following:

    [html]
    Current PC Target PC
    TYPE DDR2 DDR2
    CHANNELS # Dual Single
    SIZE 2048 MBytes 2048 MBytes
    TIMINGS
    DRAM FREQUENCY 266.0 MHz 399.0 MHz
    FSB:DRAM 3:4 5:6
    CAS# LATENCY (CL) 4.0 Clocks 6.0 Clocks
    RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (tRCD) 4 Clocks 6 Clocks
    RAS# PRECHARGE (tRP) 4 Clocks 6 Clocks
    CYCLE TIME 12 Clocks 18 Clocks
    BANK CYCLE TIME (tRC) 16 Clocks
    COMMAND RATE (CR) 2T

    [/html]

    Essentially I want to know which is better and also if I take a RAM stick from my current PC will it work in the target pc. Thanks

    [EDIT]Ah... I just saw there in another tab in CPU-Z there is SPD and in it it shows me the current PC has 2 slots both with PC2-4300 and the target PC has 4 slots and one which has PC2-6400... So I know which one is better... but if I take 1 gb from my current PC will it slow the other ram down to 4300?
    The reason I'm asking all this is because the target PC will have to run Vista and also a XP virtual machine... and I think 1 GB for each is too skimpy
    [/EDIT]


Comments

  • #2
    Rsaeire
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Rsaeire


    Sniipe wrote: »
    I've run CPU-Z on two work machines. I basically want to take RAM from one machine and give it to the other.

    Current machine shows the following:

    [html]
    Current PC Target PC
    TYPE DDR2 DDR2
    CHANNELS # Dual Single
    SIZE 2048 MBytes 2048 MBytes
    TIMINGS
    DRAM FREQUENCY 266.0 MHz 399.0 MHz
    FSB:DRAM 3:4 5:6
    CAS# LATENCY (CL) 4.0 Clocks 6.0 Clocks
    RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (tRCD) 4 Clocks 6 Clocks
    RAS# PRECHARGE (tRP) 4 Clocks 6 Clocks
    CYCLE TIME 12 Clocks 18 Clocks
    BANK CYCLE TIME (tRC) 16 Clocks
    COMMAND RATE (CR) 2T

    [/html]

    Essentially I want to know which is better and also if I take a RAM stick from my current PC will it work in the target pc. Thanks

    [EDIT]Ah... I just saw there in another tab in CPU-Z there is SPD and in it it shows me the current PC has 2 slots both with PC2-4300 and the target PC has 4 slots and one which has PC2-6400... So I know which one is better... but if I take 1 gb from my current PC will it slow the other ram down to 4300?
    The reason I'm asking all this is because the target PC will have to run Vista and also a XP virtual machine... and I think 1 GB for each is too skimpy
    [/EDIT]

    If you mix ram modules, the system will only run as fast as the slowest ram module. That means in your case, if you mix PC2-4300 and PC2-6400, your system will only run at PC2-4300 speeds.


  • #3
    Sniipe
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,933 ✭✭✭Sniipe


    Rsaeire wrote: »
    If you mix ram modules, the system will only run as fast as the slowest ram module. That means in your case, if you mix PC2-4300 and PC2-6400, your system will only run at PC2-4300 speeds.
    So I'm wondering next if 2gb in 6400 is better than 3gb in 4300...


  • #4
    Rsaeire
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Rsaeire


    Sniipe wrote: »
    So I'm wondering next if 2gb in 6400 is better than 3gb in 4300...

    To be honest, there's not much in it. You have the PC2-4300 with slower memory and faster timings, and the PC2-6400 with faster memory and slower timings. The speeds we're talking about here are 533 MHz, PC2-4300, and 800MHz, PC2-6400.

    The only additional benefit I could see from the memory configuration is running the PC2-4300 in dual-channel, since there are two sticks, in comparison to running the PC2-6400 in single-channel as there is only one stick.

    Have a read of this for more information. Depending on the CAS latency and the speed of the different ram modules, they may just balance each other out.


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