Can I temporarily install lower MHZ memory than is supported

[rapto33]

Hello,

To cut a long boring story short I have recently bought the ASUS P5N-E motherboard from Novatech and am building my custom spec PC tomorrow, or rather having it built for me :oops:

Now, I have made a bit of a mistake and forgotten to order my ram, so I am stuck with what I have left from my old PC which is 1.5GB of DDR2 333Mhz ram. Now, my new mobo supports DDR2 as well, so thats good, but it states that it accepts 533/677/800mhz ram - there is no mention of it accepting anything lower than 533mhz.

Does that mean that my old 333mhz ram simply will not work?? Or might it work but be very slow?
I am expecting some 800Mhz ram in the post either Wednesday or thursday from Nova but unfortauntely I can only get my PC built tomorrow or I will have to wait over a week before I can get it put together :(

As such, the 333mhz ram would only be in the PC for a maximum of 24hours, and would probably only be in use for about 2-3 hours during inital boot up and Vista installation -then I would leave it until the new ram came.

Can anyone tell me if my old 333mhz ram would work or not?

Thanks a lot
Nick

[Coops]

I am a little bit confused. Are you sure that your RAM is DDR2???

It will most lilely not work if it is not listed as memory controller may not be able to run with memory at such low speed therefore not sync with it

Does your memory have parts numbers on??

Please POST so we can get spec sheet for Ram Module

[rapto33]

Yes, im 100% that the ram I have got is Samsung DDR2 Ram @ 333Mhz - I cant post a screen grab of it at the moment because I am not currently on my home computer. It is from a fairly old (2yrs) Dell Dimension 5000 but it is definately DDR2 and not just DDR.
So you think it just wouldnt work at all?

I really have no idea, so anything you say will be of great help to me!

Thanks

[Coops]

Well technically if it is DDR2 then voltage and pin setup will be the same so theres no harm in trying to be honest. Worst thing that can happen is it won't POST which is a possiblity if the chipset will not talk to such a slow speed RAM. Obviously newer chipsets are set to work with higher speeds RAM so the lower ones start to get cut out as far as support is concerned.

So sadly i cannot say for sure if your system will post or not with this ram so just try and see.

[rapto33]

Thanks for the help, so you cant see it causing any damage with the lower speed ram?
As long as it wont damage anything I am happy to give it a shot, but I dont want to fry my motherboard or CPU by trying it!!

Would you reccommend installing all 1.5 gig of it?

[Coops]

As long as the RAM is DDR2 it should be 1.8v so there should be no problem with frying.

However if in doubt do not risk it

[rapto33]

Thanks for the replies mate, I will give it a shot tonight.
I will install all 1.5 gig of my ram into it to give it the best chance and if it fails I'll just have to wait a week or so :(

Thanks again
Nick

[rapto33]

Worked fine - absolutely no problems at all. Passed the POST, installed Vista and even managed to burn a few DVDs!!
Putting my 800Mhz Corsair XMS2 in tonight tho :)
Thanks for the help

[Coops]

No problem. Glad it worked for you