What this nomenclature means

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Shubhamlondhe

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Hi there, it's 2k18 and my pc still has only 2gigs(ddr2) of ram. I wanted to upgrade it to 6GB ddr2 by buying 2 more sticks of 2GB rams. So I visited shop and he showed me Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G model of 2gb ddr2 ram. I didn't bring my old 2gb ram to his shop and he told me that to check whether ur old RAM has that "800" thing written on it or it is "133" . I was very confused , what I thought is it's ram speed (800mhz) and according to many articles on internet, it's possible to use 2 rams of different frequency as long as they are of same ddr type. So what that actually mean is it really ram speed or anything else? Any help will be appreciated , Thank you!
 
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Math Geek


yup no problem as i noted above. the faster sticks will simply run at the speed of your current slower sticks. won't see a big performance hit to worry about there. just know that it'll run slower than it is able to run.
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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DDR stands for double data rate. the front side bus speed of the ram (at least for older ram) will be something like 133, 200, 266, 200 and so on. you double this to get the ram "speed. so 800 mhz ram is actually 400 mhx bus speed and so on. looking at your old ram it may have a sticker that has either number or perhaps both on it.

for this old ram you can mix speeds easy enough but the pc will slow down the faster stick to match the slower sticks since the bus speed can't be 2 things at once. it'll default to the slower speed since the slower ones won't be able to reach the faster speeds more than likely.

do check that your motherboard can even handle the 2 gb sticks as many of the prebuilt systems of the time only used 1 gb sticks. a simple way to check is to go to crucial.com and either select your prebuilt system model or motherboard model and let it tell you what it can handle. their database is accurate and easy to use.
 
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mbarnes86

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Hi

I presume you have windows of some sort
If 32 bit no point going beyond 4 GB of ram as max about 3.3 to 3.5 GB available
If 64 bit then 2 x 4 = 8 GB would improve speed


What cpu and motherboard do you have?

Run cpu-Z. To find out spec of cpu, RAM and motherboard model

Sites selling RAM like crucial will tell you what type of ram is suitable for your motherboard

Regards
Mike Barnes
 
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Shubhamlondhe

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@mbarnes86 thanks for the answer , i of course have 64 bit windows. Motherboard is Intel's i915p/i915g. My RAM speed i found is only 256 MHz . So can I combine it with 800mhz? Because I don't really thing if anyone would be selling those 256mhz sticks right now
 
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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good catch mike :)

i forgot about 32-bit limits. so used to everyone having 64-bit these days i forget that older pc's often came with only 32-bit OS. like mike mentions, to go past 3.5gb of ram you will need a 64-bit windows so make note of that as well if you don't already have it on the pc.
 
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Math Geek

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yup no problem as i noted above. the faster sticks will simply run at the speed of your current slower sticks. won't see a big performance hit to worry about there. just know that it'll run slower than it is able to run.
 
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