Cheapo RAM question

[ReverendGadgetBoy]

Hokay well I recently acquired for zero dollars some ddr2 pc2-4200 RAM, specifically two 256 megabyte sticks. They do not have heatsinks, and are labeled Lenovo and are identical, except the modules on one are made by Infineon and the modules on the other are made by hynix or something like that. my e6300 system with a really good OCing mobo has 2 512 sticks of pc2-6400 RAM in it. I have 2 free slots.

Basically what I want to know is:

Should I put the new sticks in or will the slowdown be worse than the gain from the extra 512?

Would it be possible to OC these new sticks up to where my system is now? Or even at all?

If I OC them and i like fry them or something, can that do any damage to any other parts of my computer? I dont care about these sticks too much cause they were free, but i dont wanna break anything else.



So basically what would be the move that would give me the best performance?

Thanks a bundle.

 

[ReverendGadgetBoy]

ps i will want to OC my proc at some point. will this make a difference?

 

[randomizer]

Well you may have found a secret brand that is really cheap but outperforms and out OCs even the best corsair or OCZ. But since the chance of that are closer to zippo than you would probably like, I'd say use them until you OC, and when you do, find out how far they will go before you start to blame your cpu or temps when you get a low OC.

 

[ReverendGadgetBoy]

but if i set my ram to a higher frequency and change the timings is there a chance that i will break anything other than the bad ram?

 

[69camaroSS]

Agree with the ugly kitty guy.

 

[randomizer]

Unlikely, the only thing that I can think of would be possible damage to the slot it occupies. Like if you fry it with too much voltage it might damage the slot too. A friend had a cheap stick of RAM and he didn OC at all. He started having reboot and shutdown issues and found out that stick of ram had a BURNT connector pin/tooth/whatever you call them. Thats why I dont trust generic that much, although many of my previous systems used generic PC133 RAM and it OCed to around 150MHz and would have kept going if my cpu (t-bird) wasnt limiting it.

 

[randomizer]

Agree with the ugly kitty guy.

Dont bag the kitty.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

If you don't overvolt the memory then you should not have any chance of physical damage assuming you install the DIMMs correctly. However, since you are adding DIMMs with mixed ICs there is some chance of instability or possibly not being able to boot. The only way to tell is to install and test.

 

[randomizer]

Well as I said my friend didnt (nor does he know how to) OC or overvolt his memory and it burnt.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Well as I said my friend didnt (nor does he know how to) OC or overvolt his memory and it burnt.

Yeah, I was not getting on your back. I just wanted to clarify that a person "should" not be able to damage memory without 1 of those 2 things happening or perhaps ESD.

 

[randomizer]

I actually looked at the ram today. One tooth on it is burnt looking and about 1/3 is broken off. The slot it was in appears to have missing connectors in the same spot where that tooth was.