DDR 3200 / 2700 mix??

gwowders

gwowders

gwowders

Associate
Joined
21 Jun 2007
Posts
12
Hi all,

A little advice required please, but first off here is what I currently have:

AMD64 3000+ (Skt 754 NewCastle) 2GHz
1GB 3200 DDR (2 * 512MB)
GA-K8VT800 Pro
7600 GT

So nothing truly ground breaking, but then I'm getting on a bit, baby on the way etc. and just use it to knock around on games every now and then.

I have been offered 1GB of 2700 memory for a few quid from a work colleague who purchased it by mistake, and I was about to leap on it (anything to make the impending ET:QW run a little quicker) but have read a lot of stuff about how lower speed RAM in a system will bring the speed of the other RAM down (so 400MHz memory will suddenly run at 333MHz), which kinda makes sense.

So, my question is... Is it likely to make that much of a difference if I add it ie. the benefit of more physical RAM outweighed by a slower speed? My primary memory intensive app will be games, nothing more. Should I take the gamble or just stump up a few extra quid for some proper 3200 memory?

One other area of concern is that several other forums (there appear to be millions out there with the name 'overclock' in them) mention that my memory will only run as quickly as the FSB on the processor. I am not 100% sure where to find this out, but in my BIOS settings it listed my (default - no OC'ing going on here) clock speed as 200MHz. Does this sound about right, and if so am I worrying unnecessarily? And I guess have I been paying for memory that is too good for my board / CPU combo? :confused:

I am not looking for answers like "buy this, this and this for several hundred quid" because we need the cash for nappies, like I said! Just a simple piece of advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance guys - and appologies if this has been answered a million times before in a slightly different guise...
 
At the moment your ram will be running at DDR400. If you put in the stick of PC2700, it'll go down to DDR333. This wont impact performance too much, so I say go for it, as a slower 2GB will be better then a quicker 1GB in most newer games.

Even if you did fork out the extra for a gig of PC3200, I think because you're using 3 Dimms, then the speed will go down to DDR333 anyway (due to limitations with the A64 memory controller)
 
Cheers for the advice buddy!

I think I may understand the FSB issue a little more now too - because mine is currently 200MHz, I understand that the memory is also 200MHz - but that this is essentially doubled (hence the Double Data Rate)?? Does that sound about right?
 
Make sure you aren't being dumped with a high density 1GB stick as that type of memory doesn't work properly in the majority of motherboards and those it does it runs very badly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom