How compatible is RAM?

ionapaul

Hey all,

When I built my PC three years ago I splashed out for some enhanced latency RAM DDR400, 1GB in total, which was more than enough then. I now plan to add another 1GB - do I need to ensure the new RAM is the exact same latency as the existing RAM, or is it ok to go for some bog-standard stuff, i.e. mix-and-match different brands of RAM?

P.S. I've bought a Dell laptop to tide me over while I'm down here in Australia - if I decide to ship it home, will I be ok bringing the power supply cord thingy back home and just buy a replacement end cord at home, or will I have to buy the entire power supply box/cord combo from Dell Ireland?

Thanks to anyone who can make sense of the above and reply!

8T8

The situation with the RAM is complicated it may work it may not it largely depends on several factors some in your control (like which brand) & some not (like the bios).

It can play out a couple of different ways;
* New RAM has similar latency and works okay with existing RAM.
* New RAM & old RAM wont work until timings are manually set/increased for both due to SPD conflicts.
* New RAM refuses to work with old RAM
* Buy new RAM that is usually very cooperative with other brands like Crucial RAM but that will mean the timings on the low latency stuff may increase to match the Crucial RAM.

You start to get the idea it can work straight out or not at all.

As for the PSU query some of those laptop power packs are universal and some aren't best check it or ask in the laptop forum if anyone confirms it works. For the sake of the cost of the new power pack it might just be worth getting that from Dell in Ireland.

zilog_jones

They use the same mains voltages here as in Australia - all you need to do is change the mains plug. Also, I've never seen a non-multi-votlage laptop power supply - even my 9 year old Gateway 2000 has a multi-voltage PSU!

Overheal

RAM tends to be one of those tricky things: my philosophy being if you are going to splash out on a machine, the first thing you should do is push your motherboard to its maximum RAM threshold: on most motherboards this is now around 8gb. Doing so will cost you dearly, but god is it worth it.

ionapaul

Just dug up a little more info on what I have:

Bought a 1GB RAM pack in early 2004 from newegg.com: Mushkin Enhanced Latency Ram Level 1, DDR3200 2x512MB sticks 2-3-2-6

Now sitting in the following mobo: Gigabyte GA-K8N-SLI, nForce4 SLI
https://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318232

So any suggestions from Komplett of suitable ram to add? I am thinking about adding either 1GB or 2GB and of equal quality to the pre-existing ram - or should I just sell the existing stuff if technology has moved on sufficiently in the meantime?

8T8

Well Mushkin definitely doesn't mix well with OCZ RAM so avoid that combo.

What you could do if you wanted to play it safe is buy this Crucial 1GB pack and if it works fine with the Mushkin RAM then problem solved. If it does not work then sell the Muskin and buy another pack of the same RAM to give 2GB in total.

If you wanted to try and match the timings this more expensive Crucial Ballistix will it has 2-3-2-6 according to reviews but it is more expensive and frankly I think a waste of money as capacity matters more than latency with RAM.