I have a 848p-a motherboard with Crucial 512mb ddr pc3200. Do I need more memory than this. I plan work with photos, videos and a little of video gaming. I do have a 512 ddr pc2100 that im not using. If I need to upgrade my memory would the pc2100 be compatible with the pc3200 or do they have to be the same speed or size. any tips would be appreciated.
What CPU do you have in there? If you have a P4 or Celeron that's running with a 400MHz or 533MHz FSB, then PC2100 will be fine. However, if you have a P4 with an 800MHz FSB, you'll want to have PC3200 in there or you'll have to have the RAM running at a ratio less than 1:1. This is a bad thing, since the P4 architecture loves memory bandwith. You can use both sticks together, but just keep in mind the info above. Personally, I've not found anything over 512MB to really do anything for me. Depending on how heavily you do photo and video editing, especially in regards to larger files, you may or may not see improvement with 1GB. Some people need it, but others don't. 1GB is likely to be the next memory sweet spot for a good price: performance ratio.
