Combining Ram

[benjaminha]

Hi I've just ordered a gig of ram 2x 512 kingston, in my mobo i already have
2 samsung sticks equalling 512. I have 2 slots free out of the 4, could i mix these or would it be better to just take out the generic sticks?

Also another question, wheres the best place for a novice user to gain better knowledge of pcs?

Thanks for any replies and advice.

 

[Blakhart]

Hi
I generaly try to keep the larger capacity sticks in the first slots, and not mixed, lower cap sticks go in the last slots. That is, unless I have a dual channel mobo, then you should match the channel/stick arrangement for best results. Often systems run best without mixed makes/sizes/speeds of ram, especialy dual channel systems.

 

[DelJo63]

ram speed should ALWAYS be matched. MFG is usually irrelavent, but does impact reliability. Personally, I like to keep all ram the same size too.

 

[benjaminha]

Do you mean keep all four slots the same or keep the pairs the pairs the same?

 

[DelJo63]

Do you mean keep all four slots the same or keep the pairs the pairs the same?

same,same. It removes complicated,special case micro-code paths and presents
memory as ONE constant interface manage uniformly. This leads to the only
'soft issue' being the reliability of the manufacture.

 

[Blakhart]

Hi
If I have equal sized mem sticks of different makers, I would add one of each to each channel and test it. If it runs better with matched sticks in each channel so be it. Matched/identical mem in all cases is preffered.