RAM Advise

[martini09]

Notice my PC slowing down recently. Got Patriot Extreme PC2-9600 1200mhx 2x1gb 5-5-5-12 on a Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 CPU.
Ran CPU-Z & under memory it says
DRAM 398.6Mhz
FSB DRAM 5.6
CL 5.0 clocks
tRCD 5 clocks
tRP 5 clocks
tRAS 5 clcoks
tRAS 15 clocks
Q - shouldnt the DRAM be 600mhz ? How do I know the 1200mhz memory is rnning correctly - so I can sell it on when I change/add more RAM ?
The clocks add up to 5-5-5-15, shouldnt it be 5-5-5-12 ?

As I have 2x 1gb, I was thinking of changing to 2x2gb but as 1200mhz is rare Im thinkingof getting 2x2gb 1066mhz or PC2-8500 - is that ok. If the PC2-8500 says CL 5-7-7-25, will I need to change any settings in bios? or is it ok to use ?

Help much needed

Thanks

 

[noreaster]

As you mentioned 1200MHz DDR2 is rare, even when DDR2 was in full production, It may be possible that your motherboard does not recognize the full 1200MHz or doesn't know how to handle it by default. I would go into your BIOs and see if you can manually set the speed and timings. It appears you are aware that CPU-z reports the DRAM speed as raw and does not compensate for Double Data Rate (DDR) meaning it should read 600MHz. The timing of 5-5-5-15 vs 5-5-5-12 is miniscule in noticeable performance so if you cannot change it or if it does not stick, I would not worry too much about it.

Hope that helps.

 

[martini09]

As you mentioned 1200MHz DDR2 is rare, even when DDR2 was in full production, It may be possible that your motherboard does not recognize the full 1200MHz or doesn't know how to handle it by default. I would go into your BIOs and see if you can manually set the speed and timings. It appears you are aware that CPU-z reports the DRAM speed as raw and does not compensate for Double Data Rate (DDR) meaning it should read 600MHz. The timing of 5-5-5-15 vs 5-5-5-12 is miniscule in noticeable performance so if you cannot change it or if it does not stick, I would not worry too much about it.

Hope that helps.

Hi noreaster,
Tx for your time & reply, much appreciated.

So, is my current RAM running slow? incorrectly ? given the 398mhZ reading ?

Also, do you think I can swap out the DDR2 PC-9600 240pin 2x1gb 1200mhZ 5-5-5-12 RAM for DR2 PC2-8500 2x2gb 1066mhZ CL 5-5-7-25 ?
If I can, will I need to go into bios & change anything or just swap them over ?
Much appreciate any advise

 

[noreaster]

Your current memory (DDR2 PC-9600) is not running at its specified speed, and should be able to be fixed in BIOS.
DDR2 is an ATX standard which means that any RAM labeled DDR2 will fit in the socket, be careful though, some motherboards will not accept modules/sticks/DIMMs that have large capacities. For example, a motherboard may have 4 RAM slots but can only support 8GB of RAM, meaning a 2GB max for each slot. Google your motherboard and this info should be easy to find. If new/different RAM is detected, most motherboards will display a screen after the POST asking if you want to load default settings or enter setup to manually configure the new RAM, try the default settings to see if they load properly, if not then enter setup and manually configure it.

 

[martini09]

Ok, Confused again !
Just been into bios, advanced tab & it says
Current Memory speed 800mhZ
Current memory settings 5-5-5-15
Memory frequency 667mhz
tCL 4
tRCD 5
tRP 5
tRASmin 13
Channel A & B slot 0 both say DDR2 800 SPD 5-5-5-15.

Given I have DDR2-9600 1200mhz 5-5-5-12, not sure what I should be changing. ALso, does this explain why CPU-Z says 398mhz (half of 800) ? So how do I get bios to recognise its 1200mhz ? Cheers

 

[noreaster]

How to change settings depends on your motherboard, sometimes there is an option to change memory settings from [auto] to [manual] or something like that. Look in your motherboards documentation, online or in print, to see if there is a breakdown of what each setting does.