PC2100 DDR RAM - Need Advice

[avs20 10+ year member]

Moe..friend IM'd me..told me to check into this: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3325732?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Last I remember..kingston wasnt highly praised..

 

[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

Moe..friend IM'd me..told me to check into this: http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3325732?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PGLast I remember..kingston wasnt highly praised..

Kingston is fine.. that stick of ram will work for you.

 

[avs20 10+ year member]

Cool. Like I said..not looking for the best of the best. Just want to be able to do 2 things at once without my computer locking up for a couple of minutes. lol

 

[2kchevy06civic 5,000+ posts]

about pc2700 ram
if your mobo can't support that fast of ram your computer will run very unstable.

thought my laptop could take pc3200 and put pc3200 in, crashed every 10 minutes. put pc2700 in, and it was fine

that's not true, you can underclock the ram to where it will be stable on your computer.

and the difference between pc2700 and pc2100 is, pc2700 runs at 166mhz fsb

where are the pc2100 runs at 133mhz. But like moe said, the pc2700 can be underclocked to where you can run it on your mobo if it doesn't support the pc2700 speed.

 

[liar2 10+ year member]

Laptops are more picky than desktops. ANY speed RAM should work so long as it fits the slot. You obviously aren't going to get SDR RAM to work in a DDR RAM slot. The 2700 will work though. However, it will only operate at the same speed as the slowest stick.

2100 is old and outdated now. I don't think too many companies make it anymore, therefore it has gone up in price.

 

[avs20 10+ year member]

So while we're on the topic..educate me. Why is some RAM better than others? Runs at true speed stated? Better build quality?

 

[liar2 10+ year member]

There have been 3 different types of RAM that I can recall off of my head. There has been SDR RAM, DDR RAM, and RDRAM. RDRAM was used with some of the earlier Pentium 4 chipsets and is extremely expensive and can only be used in pairs.

DDR RAM is what you are using now. The differences are mostly the speed of the RAM in MHz and the timings. Some of the more expensive sticks can have heatsinks which make for better overclocking. DDR stands for double data rate. This is effective as a single stick runs twice as fast as it's predecessor (SDR RAM). For instance, PC3200 RAM = 200 x 2. It's clock speed is actually 200 MHz, but with a multiplier of 2 which now makes it 400 MHz. Keep in mind, this should be running at the same FSB as your CPU.

Certain RAM is better than others mainly because of these clock speeds. Lower latency memory will give you a better response time. The average user really has no use for this, but hardcore users will definitely look into this. Also, certain memory chips have overall build quality. I know that Samsung chips are among the best.

This should give you a basic understanding...

 

[avs20 10+ year member]

Well guys..I bought a gig stick of ram, and a second 80gig hdd to replace my 12gb(OS only goes on this hdd). I must say..probably the best upgrade Ive ever made. So much faster...it is unbelievable. I appreciate all of your help!

 

[iLL-Faded 10+ year member]

get a new mobo and a new processor? plus a new vid card and new ram, that would def beef up your comp, what you have right now is umm,, yeah not soo good.

 

[avs20 10+ year member]

1.6ghz, over a gig of ram 160gb space..not good enough? I dont play games...just load music onto my ipod and multi task. I think it's plenty.

 

[ruckus]

that is completely untrue... My mobo supports up to PC3200 DDR. Ive got 2 sticks of PC3500 running at 236 FSB each, FAR beyond the supported PC3200 speed. The same with my brothers board, and the past 3 computers I have gone through. My friend is running PC4000 in his board only rated to support PC3200. It is fine. The reason it says that it supports up to that speed memory is because that speed is the highest FSB that the board supports without overclocking.

not completley untrue. I work in the computer industry and Ive seen plenty of computers that will not handle higher pc memory. old dell that run PC100 most wont run PC133 (GXI, GN+ models) some older asus ddr motherboards load out at PC2100 or PC2700 and will crash trying to run higher rates. alot of motherboards will clock down the memory but there are models that wont.

 

[iLL-Faded 10+ year member]

1.6ghz, over a gig of ram 160gb space..not good enough? I dont play games...just load music onto my ipod and multi task. I think it's plenty.

oOo for storage, then thats enough.

 

[avs20 10+ year member]

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[Moe Lester 10+ year member]

not completley untrue. I work in the computer industry and Ive seen plenty of computers that will not handle higher pc memory. old dell that run PC100 most wont run PC133 (GXI, GN+ models) some older asus ddr motherboards load out at PC2100 or PC2700 and will crash trying to run higher rates. alot of motherboards will clock down the memory but there are models that wont.

so basically you are saying, that if a board supports PC2700 max and cant clock down the memory, that if you put in PC3200, the board will either overclock itself to run at 200 FSB, or even though it doesnt support the memory, its going to try and run it that fast anyway?

I remember with SDRAM that PC 100 and 133 were not always backwards compatible though.