Hi, I'm a big time newb so I'm hoping someone can help me. I have a pretty old motherboard, maybe 2-3 years old. It's an ASUS P4B533. Basically, I have 512 MB's of DDR Ram, It's Samsung Ram and I am pretty sure it's PC 2700. I need more Ram because my PC sometimes freezes up with all the multi-tasking I do so I see a pretty good deal on some 184 Pinn, PC 3200 Ram. So I really have two questions. Would anyone mind telling me if there would be a conflict between PC 2700 RAM and PC 3200 RAM? But more importantly, how can I check and see for sure if I do have PC 2700 RAM to begin' with? I'd also like to know if I could check somewhere to see whether or not I have 184 Pinn Ram or if my ASUS P4B533 Motherboard supports it. Thanks in advance for anyone who will help me.
Nothing like figuring out the gross specifics of your RAM. The way I see it the easiest way to find out what kind of RAM you have (and all its gross specifications) could be successfully discovered by installed Everest Home Edition (link) and running a report of your memory. You'll find yourself addicted to this application after a while. I did a little Googling on your mobo (link) but have not been able to find a downloadable PDF. However on this linked page it is stated: "The ASUS P4B533 and the Intel 845E chipset unlock the value of Pentium 4 technology with high-bandwidth DDR SDRAM. Supporting up to 2GB of PC2100/PC1600 and a peak bandwidth of 2.1GB/s, the P4B533 enables enhanced performance in multimedia applications, video, audio, 3D games and more." Again in the way I see it you should use only PC2100 or PC1600 modules when you add more RAM. I've also been told its best practice to have identical modules for the best overall performance. Seeing as how you denoted you have Samsung, that should not be hard to find. In ones opinion you can cut corners in a lot of areas of building a nice box, but RAM should not be one of them.
PC2100 is what you should be using to start with. If you're overclocking, PC2700 would work too, but beyond that, you're not going to see benefits by getting something faster than PC2100. If you have upgrading the motherboard in mind, then, yes getting PC3200 or faster would be a good idea. If you have a 'B' Pentium 4 (like say a 2.4B) it uses a 533MHz FSB (4x 133MHz), then you'll want PC2100 as it runs up to 266MHz. Divide that by 2 and you come up with 133MHz, which coincides with the base FSB of the Pentium 4.
first and foremost, thank you both for your replies! Mesh, thank you for the link to that program, it is addicting already! That is one amazing piece of software. Well you both were right, I have PC2100 DDR RAM. After reading both of your posts I do have a couple of other quick questions but I will post the section of the report first so you can see what it says. Intel Pentium 4A, 2400 MHz (18 x 133) Motherboard Name Asus P4B533 (6 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DIMM) Motherboard Chipset Intel Brookdale i845E BigB, being that i'm a newb, and just researched before posting to begin' with, nothing I read said anything about "PENTIUM B" vs. A, etc, so I'm just a little confused. This report from Everest says I have an "A PENTIUM" so would that be "better" then a B' Pentium? But more importantly, from your response it appears that I "could" technically use PC3200 RAM, but it wouldn't offer me any additional benefit. So just out of curiousity though, let's say I could get a great deal on PC3200 DDR RAM, even less expensive then say PC2100 RAM, would there be any reason not to get it and use it? I mean I know i'm not gonna get any additional benefit, but would my MOBO at least support it in case I do want to upgrade in the future? Oh, and noone mentioned anything about 168 Pinn Memory, so i'm guessing i'm alright with that? Thanks once again for any help with this, you both have already been really helpful.
If you get pc3200 bear in mind you will have to disregard the current RAM you have now. Multiple speeds don't like eachother.
As long as they are running at equal timings and FSB speed they should be fine, if they have conflicting timings on the memory or you overclocking the FSB to anything over your slower memory you'll hve problems. But still it's not recommended.
Thanks again everyone for the replies. O.K, well that stinks that I can't use the current 512 MB of PC2100 Memory I have already in my system, but what can ya' do. Alright, so I do have one last question then, I saw a good deal on a Patriot 1GB PC3200 Memory stick for $99 which seems like a great price from everything i've read. That's also "DDR" but if I could find a really good deal on "DDR 2" is there any reason why my Asus P4B533 motherboard would not support DDR 2? My hunch is that my mobo won't support it, but I'd figure i'd ask one of the experts here to just make sure. Thanks again in advance!
well I think I answered my own question here and from everything i've researched and read my current MOBO won't be compatible with DDR 2 RAM. So I started to look for the best prices on PC 2100 RAM and I found something interesting that hopefully would allow me to use this Ram with my current PC 2700 RAM. It's this RAM here at COMPUSA. http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=314792&pfp=srch1 The price of this RAM after rebates this Sunday will be $38, but what is confusing is that it is listed as PC 2700 on the specs but if you look on the box it clearly says desktop upgrade PC 2100/PC 2700 and also says 266/333 Mhz. From the box it seems like this RAM is compatible at 266 and 333 or 2100 and 2700 if that makes any sense. Does anyone have any idea if this RAM would be compatible with my PC 2100 and not cause any conflicts? Thanks again in advance!
DDR 2 is 240-pin while DDR is 184-pin, and even if you managed to get it installed, you'd have either broken something or fired it up. DDR has a limitation as to how high it can go, which is the main reason for DDR 2. The problem with DDR 2 is latency. Latency is best explained as the pause between the request for an action and the response. DDR___/PC____ is good for speeds up to the listed speed. It's like your cars tires being good for up to 150MPH, in that you can drive at 40MPH no problem. It *might* be more of an issue with the RAM chips between the memory sticks. However, Asus is generally one of the better motherboard companies and should be more forgiving in this regard. It's always best practice to use the same brand and speed of RAM, but it's not an absolute requirement. I'm not sure how good CompUSA's memory is, and the packaging looks similar to other low-quality brands like PNY (the worst RAM I've ever used in brief).
