newbie installing more ram, help...

[Viva Las Vegas]

I currently have 256 mb ram (DDR 184pin 2100MB speed PC 2100). The guy at the computer shop sold me 512 MB ram (184 pin, PC 2700, DDR 333). He said the speed difference doesn't matter. I was looking online and saw a few articles that said don't use different speeds - they didn't say why. The guy at the computer shop said it won't matter and that my new ram will only run as fast as my current ram, which is fine by me. But now I'm a little hesitant to install it after seeing a couple articles saying not to mix speeds. I'm wanting to add this to my current set up for a total of 768 MB ram. So am I ok to install this second ram module? Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Sherrick]

As odd as it may sound, both the computer store guy and the online articles are right. In most motherboards, you CAN mix memory speeds because the faster memory will simply reduce speed to match the RAM you already have. The reason for the online sites indicating that you shouldn't mix speeds is because on some setups, you can get a very significant speed increase if you use the same size and speed of RAM in what is called a "Dual Channel" configuration. Dual Channel memory helps the system provide optimum performance.

As far as your situation, as long as you install the memory correctly, you shouldn't cause your system any harm, although you won't be getting the full performance out of the new memory since it will be running slower to keep in time with the original memory.

When I put new memory in a system, I always use a testing program such as Memtest86 before I fire up my operating system to that the system is seeing the memory properly and that the memory does not have faults that can cause lots of problems. You can download Memtest86 for free from the following link:

http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Good luck and I hope this information was helpful.

Sherrick

 

[Viva Las Vegas]

Thanks a lot! You helped a lot. You said "as long as I install it correctly", basically I just stick it in the correct spot and plug everythng back in, and power it up and I'm good to go. Is their something special about installing it or are you just saying as long as I don'tdo something completely wrong putting it in?

 

[bmsdaddy]

Nothing special about the install, just line it up and press it in. If you computer doesn't show the correct amount of memory you may not have pushed it in all the way.

 

[Thongsy]

Installing ram is easy, sometimes it takes firm pressure to make sure it snaps in. Also if you install it backwards the comp won't boot up. Made that mistake also when I was installing some.