Question about memory (RAM)

[surfingsimon]

I have an athlon xp and ddr memory allong side it which is PC2100 (or DDR266 if you prefer)

i am going to upgrade the memory but would rather buy a higher grade (ie PC2700) as i envisage upgrading the motherboard and processor in the future.

does anyone know if my current processor would work with the PC2700 memory or do i have to match the frequency of both components?

cheers for any help
simon

[andrewdalgleish]

depends on your motherboard, check with the manufacturer (or have a look on their website)

[TheGamesMaster]

As andy said check motherboard manual/website. As you haven't given the athlon spped you could also try checking their website for details of what the chip officaly supports.

If the motherboard doesn't support the faster memory, one of two things is likely to happen:
[nl][li]It doesn't work. The computer either doesn't turn-on or just unstable and crashes.
[li] It works fine, but you won't notice/get any speed improvement over your old ram (unless you start playing with cl numbers).[/nl]

The main question is when you are thinking of upgrading the chip/motherboard? As with everthing else memory technology is always changing, so by the time you buy the new chip/motherboard the "new" memory you have bought now might not be compatible anyway.

[rr12]

Why didnt you ask me? This offends me you disrespect my house. You are not welcome here any more.

[duncanb]

DDR266 isn't necessarily 2100.

[andrewdalgleish]

[s]rr12 wrote on 08:50, 3rd Nov 2003:
Why didnt you ask me? This offends me you disrespect my house. You are not welcome here any more.




i think you should ask robert...

[surfingsimon]

robert dont know shit - he thinks he does though.

[ThePhobos]

Without the mainboard details (Manufacturer, Type) this question is just plain stupid
Its impossible to tell, you cant mix and match different types either btw

[Lumo]

If you put PC2700 ram in a board that only supports PC2100 you will get the amazing result of it running at PC2100 speed, (266mhz FSB).

That’s exactly what I have running, Athlon XP, 266FSB and 512 of 2700 RAM.

Its like the days of PC66/100/133 etc, they all worked at lower speeds. Ie 100 would run at 66 with a 66fsb FSB processor.

As for mixing brands, as long as you do that (mix BRANDS, not unbranded cheapo stuff) you will generally be fine, its only when you stick some cheap dabs own branded in next to your wonderful Crucial stuff that you get problems.

[turtle]

crucial isn't wonderful. i used 512 corsair 3500 for a day (my friends) and i could clock like 40% higher than my crucial. i was like ":O, that's wrong". but then again, so are lots of things

[s]Lumo wrote on 11:09, 4th Nov 2003:
If you put PC2700 ram in a board that only supports PC2100 you will get the amazing result of it running at PC2100 speed, (266mhz FSB).

That’s exactly what I have running, Athlon XP, 266FSB and 512 of 2700 RAM.

Its like the days of PC66/100/133 etc, they all worked at lower speeds. Ie 100 would run at 66 with a 66fsb FSB processor.

As for mixing brands, as long as you do that (mix BRANDS, not unbranded cheapo stuff) you will generally be fine, its only when you stick some cheap dabs own branded in next to your wonderful Crucial stuff that you get problems.

[Lumo]

yea its not wonderful for o/cing, but generally they are reliable for what they are rated to do. The number of sticks that die after a week or simply never work at all are low.

[surfingsimon]

many thanks all who posted. after considering the advice given i will probably just buy another stick of 2100 to keep things simple
ta