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red268
10-07-2007, 01:19 PM
Hi all,
I got PC2700 RAM in my PC. I got a 256 and a 512 stick. My brothers PC uses PC2100 RAM and he is getting a new PC. Is it worth taking his 512 stick and putting it in my PC. I know the other sticks will slow down to the same as the PC2100, but there will be more of it .... swings and roundabouts?

I don't know if it is worth having more but slower, or less but faster.

Thanks all
Kreij
10-07-2007, 01:25 PM
Depends on what you use your computer for most of the time, but I would rather have 1GB of slower RAM than 786MB of faster.

Just my 2 cents.
Kreij
10-07-2007, 01:35 PM
Let me elaborate on my thoughts.
Lets say you have a hypothetical situation where your OS and game need 800MB of RAM for what it is trying to do.

With the faster/less RAM your system will be forced to start using the pagefile. This will send your performance down the dumper, where as the slower/more RAM will not have to page and even though it's slower (than the other RAM) it's a LOT faster than the HD doing paging.

If your system requirements do not need more than 768 MB, then the faster RAM would improve performance, but probably not noticably unless you are running some kind of benchmark.
francis511
10-07-2007, 01:53 PM
Depends on what you use your computer for most of the time, but I would rather have 1GB of slower RAM than 786MB of faster.

Just my 2 cents.

Ditto ,and you can negate the effect of slower ram in the bios if you know what you`re doing - i.e. a slight overclock.
quickie
10-07-2007, 02:20 PM
go for more RAM, it's much better imo.

btw, what kind of processor do you have? if its say, an athlon xp with a 133fsb, you won't be taking as large of a performance hit as you may think.
red268
10-07-2007, 02:32 PM
I have an AMD Athlon 2400+ .... I honestly don't know the FSB for this processor :S
quickie
10-07-2007, 05:49 PM
red, your Athlon XP 2400+ has a 133Mhz FSB (which is 266Mhz effective).

PC2100 runs at 133Mhz (which is also 266Mhz effective).

Since your CPU's FSB and your memory is running at the same speed, it's the best match. You wouldn't have noticed much of a difference if you had the RAM at PC2700 while the CPU FSB was just at 133Mhz.

Anyways, happy upgrading