mixing ram

adelburn · 8 Oct 2007 at 10:03

Is it alryt to mix different ram types,

I have the 2gb of ballistix 5300, but was looking to sell as it is brand new.

I have just ordered 2gb of the cheapo GEIL 5300 stuff.

If I decide against selling the ballsitix could I just mix it and have 4gb?

Only prob I could see is that ballistix needs 2.2v and geil 1.8-2.1v.

gurusan · 8 Oct 2007 at 12:50

depends which speed you plan on running them. They will most likely both do 800mhz 4,4,4,12 at similar voltages...but past that the geil will need more voltage and looser timings and hold back the crucial overclock.

Cob · 8 Oct 2007 at 17:26

It wouldn't be wise to run them together tbh.

And personally I wouldn't cripple the awesome PC5300 Ballistix by adding some Geil PC5300.

Amnesia · 8 Oct 2007 at 17:55

ram timings hardly help in gaming performance....put them on loose timings and it should be fine....i gave my nephew two 512 sticks of faster ram to mix with his two 512 sticks and they are working fine for him.

gurusan · 8 Oct 2007 at 18:06

memory said:
ram timings hardly help in gaming performance....put them on loose timings and it should be fine....i gave my nephew two 512 sticks of faster ram to mix with his two 512 sticks and they are working fine for him.

but are they overclocked?

Amnesia · 8 Oct 2007 at 19:34

memory said:
put them on loose timings and it should be fine.

gurusan said:
but are they overclocked?

nope...they are both 800mhz running at loose timings....in-game performance is hardly affected by timings so stability over benchmark results takes priority.

Delvis · 8 Oct 2007 at 20:39

Should be fine, especially if nothing is clocked.

And as both RAM types are 5300 makes it even easier as the ram doesent have to downclock itself.

It won;t be 'as' efficient as having say four type of the ballistix or four of the Geil, but the difference wont be THAT noticeable.

People forget not everybody overclocks and gets the best ram timings possible

gurusan · 8 Oct 2007 at 21:03

Yeah if there's no overclocking it should be fine.

Cob · 8 Oct 2007 at 21:08

I think the main issue is mixing IC's.

adelburn · 8 Oct 2007 at 23:11

Well the reason I decided to sell the ballistix is that I did clock the heck out of it originally but it failed after 3 months and after a bit of research it seems this is quite common.

So I thought whilst it is being RMA'd I'd buy the cheapo Geil and run a moderate overclock or even at standard as I couldnt really notice the difference when clocked anywayz

So basically it would be fine if not overclocking and I have Vista premium 64bit so twill recognise it all anywayz