Dam the RAM

[ijd]

Just upgraded my RAM to 2 gig ,
Before i did this I carried out a bench test using Everest and had a cpu speed of 2280mb,
when I installed the new RAM it bench tested at 1385mb
I then ran a test with just the new RAM and the results were 1044mb
The new stick of RAM was a Supertalent 1gb pc3200 DDR SDRAM
This was added to the original 2 sticks of 512mb pc2700 DDR SDRAM
To me the bench test results do not really add up sureley the results with all the RAM fitted should be higher or lower than the other 2 results, Am i missing something or is this what i should expect,

 

[frankmsl]

I am not an expert here, but mixing and matching different speeds of RAM is generally not a good idea. In principle the system should match the faster RAM (pc3200 = 400MHz) to run at the lower speed (Pc2700 = 333 MHz. Possibly it settled at a lower speed due to parity issues (not sure here).

I don't understand however why it did not return to its original state after you removed the RAM.

Did you try to put the 1GB stick in a different channel ? It can make a difference. Or else could it be that 'DUAL CHANNEL' is active in the BIOS so the unit is expecting a matched pair (even though I would expect a parity error in that case).

 

[ijd]

Yes i have tried it in slot 1 and 3, perhaps i should try it in the middle, i did expect it to run at the slower speed but not slow tings down further, the intention is to get another 2, 1GB sticks, just wanted to try it out first

 

[ijd]

think i get it now, 1 gb at 400 mhz is quicker than 2gb at 333mhz is that right?

 

[ijd]

just scrubbed the registry and defragged, getting 3008mbs with just the 1 gb stick, will it make much difference if i install another of the same

 

[frankmsl]

That should work (theoretically of course like always)

If you put in another stick of RAM of the same type and speed there should be no change in the speed.

 

[ijd]

so are you saying i would not benefit from fitting further stick or two

 

[frankmsl]

Its not what I meant. Your processor speed should not change (depends on a number of issues). More memory just allows your overall system to operate faster as there will be fewer bottlenecks. The biggest emlement slowing down your system is the use of 'virtual memory'. In simple terms Windows uses the Hard disc as a RAM extension. The HDD is however nowhere near as fast as RAM. That is why more RAM speeds up overall performance.

Vista seems to need about 2GB of RAM to run comfortably as it uses more resources, so here wyou could potentially see a very big increase in overall speed if you upgrade from 1GB to 2GB of memeory

 

[ijd]

Thankyou frankmsl,
You have been very helpful and informative, guess i will just have to order another stick or two