RAM Question

N

nancyboy

Weaksauce
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Mar 11, 2004
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I have a AMD Machine with a Asus K8N MB that can take 3 sticks of ram. I currently have 2x512 sticks and was thinking of upgrading to 2GB because of the falling RAM prices.

My brother has an intel machine that can take 4 sticks of ram and currently has 2x512.
I was thinking of giving him my 2x512 (corsair) along with his 2x512 (mushkin).

I read that with my setup its better to have 1GB sticks instead of 2x512 & of course will give me more room for adding more ram later (3GB).

Is it a good idea to mix ram from diffrent companies? Will the Mushkin & Corsair give problems later down the line?

Will having two sticks of 1GB give me better performance than having 1GB & 2x512?

Thanks,
 
nancyboy said:
I have a AMD Machine with a Asus K8N MB that can take 3 sticks of ram. I currently have 2x512 sticks and was thinking of upgrading to 2GB because of the falling RAM prices.

My brother has an intel machine that can take 4 sticks of ram and currently has 2x512.
I was thinking of giving him my 2x512 (corsair) along with his 2x512 (mushkin).

I read that with my setup its better to have 1GB sticks instead of 2x512 & of course will give me more room for adding more ram later (3GB).

Is it a good idea to mix ram from diffrent companies? Will the Mushkin & Corsair give problems later down the line?

Will having two sticks of 1GB give me better performance than having 1GB & 2x512?

Thanks,
Click to expand...

I think 1 gb and 2 x 512 or 2 x 1 gb gives same performance as long as they are all same stick, same brand, same latency.
 
no, 2x1gb will be faster in most programs. better load times, smoother gaming, ect.
though 2x512 is much more overclockable, thus will win benches


it's all a matter of what's important? better performace? or better benches? ;)
 
How about mixing different name brands? Will I run into problems putting the Corsair & Mushkin rams together?

Thanks,
 
no, as long as the ram is rated for the same speed and timings. if it's not, you may have some trouble with it.
 
1Gb DIMMs tend to have much looser timings and some compatibility issues. I would definitely check the Asus site or go to www.crucial.com and see if the kind of RAM you are looking at is suggested for your motherboard.

As far as going from 1Gb to 2Gb, you won't see much of a daily performance benefit unless you are editing very large audio or video files or perhaps playing a lot of EQII. 1Gb is plenty in MOST cases, more than enough in many cases.

The truth is you would get a better return on your money if you invested the cost of the extra RAM in upgrading your CPU and/or video card.
 
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