Ram Question.

Hi, I'm running a P4 1.7 with and Asus P4S-333. I currently have 256 MB of Samsung PC-2700 ram and want to add some more. There are excellent prices around for 512MB modules but they are PC-3200. I'm curious as to whether or not this is going to cause me any problems because if that's the case, I'd rather just pay the extra. Thanks for the help.

 

The answer is yes or no.

In many cases the faster RAM is quite happy running at the slower speed, alongside slower RAM.
In some cases it spits the dummy. No rules exist as to if or why though.

I run a mixture, and its fine. The faster RAM will only run at the lower speed of course.

 

make sure the slower ram is in the first slot.

 

Uhhhh...."In some cases it spits the dummy. This doesn't sound good. Is there anything I need to do to avoid this? If it's possible?

 

Hmmmm, this doesn't sound like a great idea overall.

 

In some cases the computer objects violently (error messages) and the RAM will simply not play with the other RAM fitted.
In most cases its just fine.

 

So is it usually something that will happen right away? That would be fine because then I can just exchange it, so I'm wondering if it works ok if I'll have to worry about it in the longterm or should I be ok?

 

Your best bet is to leave out the 256MB and just go with 2 DDR400 pc3200. That would be more than enough

 

Is that the best bet because of stability issues, or because 512 is enough Ram?

 

I am assuming that you are running XP. It runs fine with 512MB but flies with 1GB. And no there shouldn't be campatability issues but the slower ram will slow your faster ram down to its speed so you are defeating the purpose of gettiong the higher speed ram

 

Actually I'm still running 98SE. I was waiting to get more Ram before upgrading. The only reason to buy 3200 was that for some reason it's cheaper than 2700. How's XP run with 768MB?

 

XP will run fine on 768.

 

Skivvywaver is right it will run just fine. But my advice on the upgrade to XP is that you get a full version of Xp and not the upgrade version. Just make sure you back up your Doc's and Pic's onto CD, You will have to reinstall all the apps.

 

Oh yes, upgrade was just a figure of speech. I'm going to do a clean install. I was just concerned about mixing the ram. I was told the mobo would adjust it to the speed it can handle but I don't know, I may just pay extra for the 2700.

 

NO No, if you want to pay extra just use the money to but 2 of the pc3200's. You will be amazed at the difference