adding memory to Asus P4C800E Deluxe

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

I presently have 2 dimms of Kingston 512 installed with the following
specs:
Kingston Technology Kingston 512MB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM

I see Newegg has Crucial dimms with these specs:
Manufacturer: Crucial
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184-Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2
Support Voltage: 2.8V
Organization: 64M x 64 -Bit
Warranty: Lifetime

Can I mix these two (two dimms of each). Would the shorter latency of
the Crucial ram have a positive effect even though the latency of the
existing Kingston is more? Or would it be better to stick
with more of the Kingston that I already have?

I also saw 3D memory at memory4less with the same specs as the Kingston
- anything better about 3D memory?

TIA

Louise

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Louise" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.1bed026fea14d2e998976a@news-server.nyc.rr.com...

" Can I mix these two (two dimms of each). Would the shorter latency of
the Crucial ram have a positive effect even though the latency of the
existing Kingston is more? Or would it be better to stick with more of the
Kingston that I already have? "


All your DIMMs will need to run at the same latencies. In the past, I've
been able to get some CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.5, and similarly get
some CL2.5 DIMMs to run stable at CL2. It's not always possible though, and
it's much less likely you'll be able to get CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.

The best you could probably hope for is to run them all at CL2.5, but even
then you may find you run into compatibility problems because you are using
different DIMMS. Many people have problems when mixing different DIMMs,
and, as a rule, I personally don't do it. You won't get a refund if they
aren't compatible.

With 2 DIMMs, you can run dual-channel DDR400 on your P4C800E Deluxe (
http://snipurl.com/a6cl ). I'm not sure whether you'll be able to run
dual-channel at DDR400 with 3 or 4 DIMMs on this motherboard. That's
something you'll have to look into further.

If your useage wouldn't really need more than 1GB RAM, you may be better off
selling the CL3 DIMMs on eBay. You could then replace them with 2x 512MB
lower-latency DIMMs, and perhaps spend money upgrading elsewhere.

What's the rest of your system? What do you use it for, and why do you feel
the need to go from 1GB to 1.5GB or 2GB? Maybe you'd be better off looking
at a different way of upgrading.

 

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

In article <2uht37F2aprglU1@uni-berlin.de>, cuzNOSPAM@supanet.com
says...
> "Louise" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1bed026fea14d2e998976a@news-server.nyc.rr.com...
>
> " Can I mix these two (two dimms of each). Would the shorter latency of
> the Crucial ram have a positive effect even though the latency of the
> existing Kingston is more? Or would it be better to stick with more of the
> Kingston that I already have? "
>
>
> All your DIMMs will need to run at the same latencies. In the past, I've
> been able to get some CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.5, and similarly get
> some CL2.5 DIMMs to run stable at CL2. It's not always possible though, and
> it's much less likely you'll be able to get CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.
>
> The best you could probably hope for is to run them all at CL2.5, but even
> then you may find you run into compatibility problems because you are using
> different DIMMS. Many people have problems when mixing different DIMMs,
> and, as a rule, I personally don't do it. You won't get a refund if they
> aren't compatible.
>
> With 2 DIMMs, you can run dual-channel DDR400 on your P4C800E Deluxe (
> http://snipurl.com/a6cl ). I'm not sure whether you'll be able to run
> dual-channel at DDR400 with 3 or 4 DIMMs on this motherboard. That's
> something you'll have to look into further.
>
> If your useage wouldn't really need more than 1GB RAM, you may be better off
> selling the CL3 DIMMs on eBay. You could then replace them with 2x 512MB
> lower-latency DIMMs, and perhaps spend money upgrading elsewhere.
>
> What's the rest of your system? What do you use it for, and why do you feel
> the need to go from 1GB to 1.5GB or 2GB? Maybe you'd be better off looking
> at a different way of upgrading.
>
>
>
>
In re-reading your response, I realize I'm not sure what you mean by
"dual channel". I am under an impression that my present dimms are NOT
dual channel.

Are you saying that I could put dual channel dimms in this machine? If
so, it might be worth upgrading and getting rid of the ram I have?

Louise

 

[louise]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

In article <2uht37F2aprglU1@uni-berlin.de>, cuzNOSPAM@supanet.com
says...
> "Louise" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:MPG.1bed026fea14d2e998976a@news-server.nyc.rr.com...
>
> " Can I mix these two (two dimms of each). Would the shorter latency of
> the Crucial ram have a positive effect even though the latency of the
> existing Kingston is more? Or would it be better to stick with more of the
> Kingston that I already have? "
>
>
> All your DIMMs will need to run at the same latencies. In the past, I've
> been able to get some CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.5, and similarly get
> some CL2.5 DIMMs to run stable at CL2. It's not always possible though, and
> it's much less likely you'll be able to get CL3 DIMMs to run stable at CL2.
>
> The best you could probably hope for is to run them all at CL2.5, but even
> then you may find you run into compatibility problems because you are using
> different DIMMS. Many people have problems when mixing different DIMMs,
> and, as a rule, I personally don't do it. You won't get a refund if they
> aren't compatible.
>
> With 2 DIMMs, you can run dual-channel DDR400 on your P4C800E Deluxe (
> http://snipurl.com/a6cl ). I'm not sure whether you'll be able to run
> dual-channel at DDR400 with 3 or 4 DIMMs on this motherboard. That's
> something you'll have to look into further.
>
> If your useage wouldn't really need more than 1GB RAM, you may be better off
> selling the CL3 DIMMs on eBay. You could then replace them with 2x 512MB
> lower-latency DIMMs, and perhaps spend money upgrading elsewhere.
>
> What's the rest of your system? What do you use it for, and why do you feel
> the need to go from 1GB to 1.5GB or 2GB? Maybe you'd be better off looking
> at a different way of upgrading.
>
>
>
>
Thanks for your clarification - here's the system specs

Asus P4C800E Deluxe, P4, 3.2, 1024 Kingston Value Ram - 2 dimms - CL3,
Audigy 2ZS, ATI 9600 Pro with Zalman pipe cooler, Seagate SATA 120
drive. Win XP Pro, SP1. 21" Sony CRT, etc.

I multi-task rather heavily. Usually have Outlook, Word, a database,
streaming internet radio etc. running. I also have a grand total of 42
proceeses running in the background, including Winfax Pro, NAV and
Sygate Firewall. Don't ask me how it got to be 42 processes, but I've
eliminated everything I felt I could.

In addition, I frequently use Dragon Naturally Speaking, voice
recognition dictation software. This is a tremendous memory and
resource hog.

Now using Mozilla Firefox instead of IE most of the time. This allows
me to keep many tabs (windows) open at the same time, also using more
memory.

The machine begins to slow down when all this is active and I have the
impression that another 2 dimms of 512 each, would give it a good boost.

What would you see as the most productive upgrade path?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Louise