Ram Compadibility? Plz Help ME!

[Azn_chibi77]

Hey guys,

Im kinda new at computers and I was just wondering something about Ram for your computer. If you have a PC 3200 DDR stick of ram and put it in a Motherboard that is compadible with pc 1600/2100 should it still work even though it is PC 3200?

[cityhunter2501]

yes but it wont run on pc3200 speed.
1600 runs at 100mhz
2100 runs at 133mhz
2700 runs at 166mhz
3200 runs at 200mhz

[Azn_chibi77]

K thx alot, I was also wondering if I had a 8x AGP card and only a 4x compadibility on my MOBO will it still work?

[hampstor]

Originally posted by Azn_chibi77
K thx alot, I was also wondering if I had a 8x AGP card and only a 4x compadibility on my MOBO will it still work?

99% of the time, yes. 8X cards are generally backwards compatible w/ 4x cards. If you want to be sure, check the manufacturer's website for full specs on the card.

ie:

www.msi.com.tw
www.asus.com
www.giga-byte.com
www.ati.com

[forced14]

The only thing you will notice with the RAM, is that if it is PC3200, and you have another stick that is PC2100, instead of having the PC3200 stick run at 400 MHz, it will run at 266 MHz because of the slower PC2100. It automatically defaults to the slower speed. This does not change even if your mother board supported a higher clock speed.

[Chiggles]

Originally posted by cityhunter2501
yes but it wont run on pc3200 speed.
1600 runs at 100mhz
2100 runs at 133mhz
2700 runs at 166mhz
3200 runs at 200mhz

Correction:

2100 runs at 266Mhz
2700 runs at 333Mhz
3200 runs at 400Mhz

Additionally, mis-matching RAM sticks of different speeds is not generally a good thing. Even though the faster RAM will clock down to work at the speed of the weakest link, since it's capable of a faster throughput, the faster stick will always still demand more data from the board and being really pushy about it..... long term, you make your system unstable.... it's kinda like it's in such a rush to compute the current imput and get to the next set of data that it almost "forgets" the last thing you wanted it to do. In some cases, you can't even boot a computer properly without matching the speed type, and in a lot of those cases, you HAVE to use RAM that matches the speed on the board, not faster. In the end, you should always match up your RAM speed-types across all the sticks.

[Carfanman]

I would not reccomend having two different speed sticks of ram. I also dont see the point in buying ram that is faster than the MoBo can support, because it wont go to its full potential, so your just wasting money on something you cant use.

[Azn_chibi77]

Well I am just buying a diff mobo so it can support agp and the mobo tht i want only takes 1600/2100 and im gona use a 256 stick from my other board. So i didnt actually buy the 3200 Ram. If I did buy Ram then i could prolly buy 1600/2100. Thx for the advice peeps :)

[cityhunter2501]

Originally posted by Chiggles


Correction:

2100 runs at 266Mhz
2700 runs at 333Mhz
3200 runs at 400Mhz

i was talking FSB speed