Mixing memory

[lloyd]

hi

I bought a motherboard bundle from novatech about 3 years ago and it has a 256mb pc3200 400mhz piece of ram in it, i have just bought a 512 mb pc3200 400mhz (from novatech) i was wondering if these 2 could be added together (so it is 768mb) or can i only use one as they are different sizes.

any ideas?

thanks.

[Danno]

hello, so long as the memory is the same speed it does not matter what size sticks you use so you should not have any problems running a 256mb stick with a 512mb.

[lloyd]

ok, thanks.

[Nox]

If you're lucky, if you buy faster memory it will often 'downspeed' to the slowest chip/what is required byt he PC. This is dependant on having a half decent chipset on your motherboard, ie not a budget one!!

Nox

[GrandpaBuggins]

I have a Foxconn 661FXME mainboard - it appears to have only two RAM slots and it's currently fitted with 2x Novatech 512mb DDR-SDRAM PC3200 (200 MHz) - [DDR-400]

I want to upgrade - to 2048mb total RAM (system limit), but cannot afford to do it in one leap..

If I buy one strip of 1024mb RAM, would it be OK to just replace the 512mb strip currently in the first slot..??

If so, can you advise me on the most suitable (low-cost!) 1024mb strip to buy..?

I'll get the other 1024mb strip later - if it proves to work OK in the meantime..

[Chewie]

A few options for you (starting with the cheapest)
novatech £52.80
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?RAM-40/1G (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-40/1G)
samsung £68.15
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?RAM-401GS (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-401GS)
corsair value select £67.87
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... CSR-CL251G (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-CL251G)
infineon £61.10
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?RAM-401GB (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-401GB)
Hynix £57.58
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?RAM-401GH (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?RAM-401GH)

These are what they have here, for plain 1gb sticks. Mixing and matching at a later date may be problematic, but generally you shouldn't get any problems, based on the info available here
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Product/m ... -us0000108 (http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Product/motherboard_detail.aspx?id=en-us0000108)

[GrandpaBuggins]

Excellent, Chewie!
- exactly what I needed to know..
- BTW: thanks for that mobo linky - brilliant!! :mrgreen:

- go, go Novatech - yay!! 8)

[asteroid]

stick to well known brands of ram like Crucial / Kingston / OCZ etc and you will be fine, its worth spending the extra money.

N's own cheaper sticks of ram like Elixir and similar is incredibly picky and often wont work in conjunction with other brands, as I had to swap some ram about 3 times before my machine would work right.

Good quality ram is more tolerant of what it will work with.

[Nox]

ditto - spend the extra £3 or so on corsair/kingston/ocz/branded value series

Nox

[GrandpaBuggins]

Ok - I'll bear that in mind - I'm a bit "green" with RAM and such..

..if I can sell on my existing RAM, I may well just go for the single 1G in the meantime.. this will help cut costs..

- I don't suppose it would hurt, if I removed both strips and then install the single 1G in slot one, would it..??

- the PC will just recognise the new specs and boot as usual.. I trust?

(see what I mean - "green" is the word!! :oops: )

[Chewie]

You can go ahead and just have the 1 stick of 1gb and as long as the board likes the ram, it will boot. DOn't let that comment get to you, as its not all that often that a board won't boot with new ram, but it has been known to happen, which is why the guys pointed out about buying the slightly dearer ram rather than the N stuff.

[GrandpaBuggins]

nice one..
- my good lady wife has just sanctioned the additional spending
- sometime in the next fortnight..
- hurray!!

-I recently upgraded my PSU from 350w to 550w, I hope it all goes smoothly on the day..

- thanks, guys!! :wink:

(I'll let you know how things pan out..)

[GrandpaBuggins]

- Ok, I've now got the RAM..
- 2x1024mb sticks - stock code RAM-40/1G - as advised..

- there is a problem.. :cry:
- system information is only reporting 1024mb total RAM
- Scisoft Sandra2007 is reporting only 2 x 512mb (in banks A0 and A1)
- PC Wizard2006 reports only 2 x 512mb (as above)

- and why are the above tests showing that my motherboard has 4 RAM slots available, when there are clearly only two..??

- is there a BIOS problem here?? :shock:

[17bex]

I think i have a smilar problem to this.
bought a barebones sytemXP2700 two years ago with 256MB. Sisoft Sandra says i have four banks and i only have two. she says the memory is ddr 400. So i ordered a 512MB of novatech ddr400.

The two won't work together...

[Chewie]

Basically, the ram is double sided (chips on both side of the sticks) and the slots on the motherboard are only capable of reading single sided sticks.

(looks back at my earlier comment on not booting)
Well, you hit the other side of the new ram won't boot problem, your not seeing it all.

I'm afraid your gonna have to get N to replace it with a single sided set. Then your machine will read them correctly.

Sorry for the run around Gramps, but without seeing the bopoklet for that MoBo couldn't have accurately predicted the neccessity for single sided sticks.

[17bex]

any advice for me...