Stupid RAM question

[Second Gunman]

I finally have my rebooting issue solved (took long enough). I'm now thinking of adding more RAM. I currently have 2x512MB of Corsair ValueSelect RAM. I only have 3 slots on my motherboard, so I'd like to get a 1GB stick.

My question is this: Is there any problem with mixing brands of RAM? I'm looking at grabbing a 1GB stick of PNY this weekend (Black Friday at CompUSSR). I'm sticking with PC3200 all around, so mixing clock speeds isn't an issue. I'm 99% sure my current RAM is CAS 2, so I would need to stick with the same CAS.

Is there anything else I need to consider?

[Drexor69]

Re: Stupid RAM question

Shouldn't really be an issue, you're going to be stuck at the speed of your slowest module though.

[Gunny Highway]

Re: Stupid RAM question

Is there anything else I need to consider?

Yes, it most likely wouldn't run in dual channel mode.

The best option is to get 2x1 GB it gives the best results, as far as stability.

Mixing RAM isn't a good idea IMO. You could of course buy 1 GB and see it works out okay, and if it doesn't just buy one more of the exact same RAM module, and get rid of the 2x512.

[abtomat74]

Re: Stupid RAM question

If he is using an AMD xp CPU, dual channel doesn't make any difference at all.

Pentiums and AMD64's(socket939) on the other hand do make actual use of dual channel.

Before giving advice, it is best to know what hardware we are advising on...

[Drexor69]

Re: Stupid RAM question

He's got 3 sockets so he's using an Athlon XP with an nForce 2 board...

I too would recommend going with the 2GB upgrade but figured he couldn't afford that upgrade based on what he currently had in his system.

[Second Gunman]

Re: Stupid RAM question

He's got 3 sockets so he's using an Athlon XP with an nForce 2 board...

I too would recommend going with the 2GB upgrade but figured he couldn't afford that upgrade based on what he currently had in his system.

Actually, that's incorrect on both counts, but I'll forgive you since it's my fault for not giving full specs in my post.

I have an Athlon64 (socket 754) 3200+ on an Asus K8N-E Deluxe motherboard (nforce3 250 chipset). Given this hardware, I don't believe that dual channel is a factor, though I could be wrong.

I have PC3200 at the moment, and am looking at PC3200. Current memory timings are 2.5-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS). I haven't looked at the PNY memory yet, but will only consider it if it has similar values.

I may very well get two 1GB sticks, I'm just looking at my options at the moment.

[Drexor69]

Re: Stupid RAM question

Sorry to everyone about the earlier posts, saw 3 sockets and assumed nForce 2. Assume makes an Ass out of U and Me...

Stupid 754's! =P

In that case the dual channel issue is mute because that's a single channel memory controller.

That being said though I believe there is a limitation to the number of ranks you can run, that being 4. If you add a 1 GB module you'll have 6 ranks and I'm not really sure what will happen as I haven't looked at it in a while but I seem to recall that it simply won't work... =\

If you can afford it you'll be better off getting that 2GB upgrade.

[=PxR=TitanSound]

Re: Stupid RAM question

I finally have my rebooting issue solved (took long enough).

Sorry for going off topic but how did you solve it? I still have my reboot issues

[Second Gunman]

Re: Stupid RAM question

I almost think it would be shorter to list what I didn't try.....

I tried several things that I don't think accomplished anything. Here's a list of the things that I think may have actually had some impact:

Click Start/Settings/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer. On the left side, click on System. Look for any warnings or errors and start sorting those out. I had two....one from Iomega, one from ati2mtag. It turns out that my zip drive install left something behind in the registry. I downloaded Hijack This and used it to remove anything involving Iomega from the registry. I still have yet to figure out what the ati entry is.....

In another thread, people mentioned having problems with Creative sound cards. I removed my sound card and went to the motherboard's onboard audio. This helped a great deal, but didn't fix the problem.

Someone on another forum offered to help me sort through memory dumps (I'd never done it before). He didn't recognize what was causing the crashes, so he said he thought I might have something nasty running around that shouldn't be there. I ran Zone Alarm's anitivirus and anti-spyware, SpyBot, and AdAware.

This is about when the problem changed.......my computer no longer rebooted in the middle of a game, now it just froze and wouldn't do anything. I had to hit the reset button to get it to do anything. Also, I stopped getting a minidump when the computer froze.

I still hadn't figured out what the ati2mtag problem in the event viewer was all about, so I thought I'd have a go at that next. I completely removed all software associated with my video card, and downloaded Catalyst5.10.

This seems to have fixed the problem. I've played for several weeks now without a single reboot or freeze. I don't know if just one of these things fixed the problem, or if it was some combination of them.....though I suspect it was a combination of things. I'm not going to question it, I'm just glad I can play with friends now without wondering if I'll crash out thirty seconds into the game.

Now that I have that fixed, I'm starting to look into squeezing a little performance out of the hardware I already have without investing a ton of money in new parts. I thought about a SATA hard drive, but I was looking at a 7200rpm drive, and people can't seem to agree if there's a performance boost there or not. Now I'm looking at adding RAM or maybe getting a new video card......