new RAM help what one ? a or b

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 15:57

hi ,

i am thinking about geting some ram for my pc it will be A or B you can see below they ar both the same price and the same 1 gb . but i do not know what one to get ?.............. help

thank you daz .

MovedGoalPosts · 26-03-2009, 16:02

You need to tell us your motherboard make and model, the CPU you are using, and whether you already have some RAM you intend to retain.

If you don't know I'd point you at the crucial.com/uk website where there is an online detector scanner thing that will tell you what is compatible.

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 16:07

that is where i will buy from and i have used there scaner to get the ram for my pc . this ram is compatible i just do not know one was better .

thanks for your reply rob .

daz

MovedGoalPosts · 26-03-2009, 16:13

Neither is necessarily better than the other. PC2-8500 can run at a faster speed, if the other stuff you are matching with also runs at that speed, but as I recently found with my own PC, it's a bit of a wierd timing, and took a lot of fiddling with the settings in the BIOS to get to that pace.

PC2-6400 is a more traditional setting of 800MHz, and thus more likely to run at the correct pace "out of the box".

If you are matching RAM, you should go for the same speed type. If it's new RAM not needing to be compatible, it would be odd just to be buying 1GB of it as you'd normally be pairing it to 2 or perhaps 4GB amounts.

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 16:58

i will not be maching it to any old ones i will be geting 4 bits to go in the MB taking my pc up to its max with 4gb as i have vista 32 bit .
thanks
daz

MovedGoalPosts · 26-03-2009, 17:42

There's no a lot of point going to 4GB of RAM if you are running Vista 32. It will use only just over 3 GB. The 64bit Vista versions will make use of 4GB or more.

Having said that. Most modern motherboards need you to install memory in pairs. That may make it most economic to do 2 x 2GB chips rather than try to get a lesser level by combinations of smaller chips.

djmagnifique · 26-03-2009, 18:04

Also some motherboards can have issues when 4 sticks of ram are fitted (random bsod, not booting), i'd advise going for 2x2gb sticks.

CHiLL · 26-03-2009, 18:11

You can't really tell the difference between 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-18 any more. A few years ago, some applications loved low timings, but now they don't really make a difference. But from what I'm lead to believe there's a fair amount of difference between 800MHz and 1066MHz.

I'd personally say go for the 1066MHz.

But like other people have said, getting 4GB on a 32-bit operating system is a waste, because you'll only use little over 3GB, maybe 3.25GB.

1066MHz RAM is the same as 800MHz, just overclocked I believe. But I may stand corrected.

boroboi · 26-03-2009, 18:16

Anything over 800Mhz is RAM that's cherry picked to run at those faster speeds, the only difference is they have an SPD table added.

Unless you are running a 1066mhz FSB [266x4], you may have to manually adjust those settings

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 18:17

this is what i have in the pc right now ,

512MB
DDR PC2-5300 slot 1
512MB
DDR PC2-5300 slot 2
512MB
DDR PC2-5300 slot 3
512MB
DDR PC2-5300 slot 4

i all so found this : Memory maximums for current MicrosoftÂ® Windows OSs

Windows Vista (32 bit)

Home Premium: 4 GB

so i am looking at geting ones that will fit in with 2 of the 512 ram i all ready have and adding 2 X 2gb ? taking me over 3 and a bit gb or ram .

daz

MovedGoalPosts · 26-03-2009, 18:21

Yes that is the theoretical maximium. In practice 32 Windows version will not be able to use all of that 4GB. It's a bit like you buy a 500GB hard disk, format it and find a chunk of it got lost.

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 18:29

i see so, i what is the best combo for me to buy 2 X 2gb and keep the 2 old 512 gb or get 2 X 2 gb and some faster 512 gb to go with it as well . or mmm i do not know ....

daz

CHiLL · 26-03-2009, 18:30

You mean you want to add RAM to the RAM you already have? That would mean any new RAM you buy would run slower than it can, making it run at the same speed as what is already in the system. Meaning 1066MHz would go down to 577MHz to run with the other sticks. RAM can only run as fast as the slowest stick or the speed of the motherboard.

daz300 · 26-03-2009, 18:32

yep so i would be better for me to buy 2 x 2 GB and 2X 512 to go with it . as i have to install memory in pairs.

CHiLL · 26-03-2009, 18:37

2x 2GB and 2x 512MB is 5GB...what would you need that for?

You only need 2x 2GB, and put them in the dual channel slots. The 512MB sticks can be taken out, as they'd be totally wasted and only slow the system down.

If you buy 2x 2GB, you aren't really losing much when Windows knocks it down from 4GB to 3.25 or so GB. RAM is fairly cheap at the moment anyway.