I recently purchased 2gb (2x1gb) of pc5300 at 667mhz ram. I installed it in my system,so i had a total of 3gb, but it only runs at the speed of the old ram which was(2x512mb) pc5200 at 533mhz. My question is whether my computer would run faster with 2gb of pc 5300 at 667mhz or 3gb at pc5200 533mhz.
if your board supports dual channel memory use the two sticks of 667mhz ram in dual channel. dont use the old ram at all. because the system will access 2gb ram at dual channel performance. since you put the old ram in as well the system will acess that ram at single channel performance therefor decreasing your overall system performance.
all of the ram is ddr2, not just the new. Its just that if i keep the old in both sets of ram, thats 2x512mb and 2x1gb, will both run at 533mhz, but if i only use the new, it will run at 667mhz, i was wondering which configuration might be faster
the ddr2 667mhz configuration will be faster because its a faster memory speed than 533mhz. so just use the 2x1gb ram modules. your problem is your 2x512mb ram is pc5200 (533mhz) and your 2x1gb is pc5300 (667mhz) and your bios is set to run all modules at 533mhz because your pc5200 (533mhz) is limiting it to that speed, so your pc5300 (667mhz) ram is not running at its full potential. if you would have got 2x1gb of pc5200 (533mhz) you wouldnt have that problem. so as i suggested before just use the pc5300 (667mhz) ram because its a faster memory speed, and your system will perform better.
