-GoBengals- Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 ok, i have a melting pot of ram in this machine right now, ive decided to just keep one PC for teh time being and pay off my season tickets instead of buying a nearly pointless 2nd PC. currently i have 2 x pc3200 elixer 256mb 1 x micron 256 pc2100 i just purchased 2 x 512 pc3200 corsair from newegg for $100. im obviously going to put the 2x 512 and the 2x 256 to keep it all at pc3200 and have 1.5 gig total. mixing BRANDS isnt going to cause any issues correct? also, with my current configuration, should i be having any issues? what seems to happen if my machine stays on quite a few days in a row or i have a TOn of shit open, like photoshop and dreamweaver and 2-3 web browsers nad AIM, norton, etc.. i go to IE, type in say google.com hit enter... and it sits there for like 3-10 seconds thing clicks and brings up the page. when i restart and have only the browsers open (3-4 windows) its like lightening.. now youd think 768 ram would be sufficiant to run a few programs at once right? or is it the mix and match i have going on causing the lag? im assuming doubling the ram and going all PC3200 should more than resolve this issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Bunghole| Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 I'm not as computer savvy as you, Go, but I have many friends who are and they all preach the same gospel: MORE RAM! But I have no idea about conflicts with RAM sticks of differing manufacturers. I 'd guess that simply buying tons of RAM sticks from the same company would be the safest route, despite increased costs. But what do I know? Why am I trying to geek when I can't? Answer: Post Whore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatScratchFever Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 Mixing brands has never been an issue for me. However, mixing speeds like you have (PC2100 and PC3200) could be an issue. The slower PC2100 is acting like a bottleneck that could be adversely affecting your system. I would expect your memory upgrade will solve your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mongoloido Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 Some of this may be due to your motherboard too. Any idea what it is? Some motherboard support dual channel. Dual channel means it sends half the information to one channel and half to the other. In that instance, it becomes very important to have the ram in specific slots. FOr example, on my motherboard, slots 1 and 2 are channel 1 and slots 3 and 4 are channel 2. To run the ram as fast as possible, I need to have my matching sticks of ram in slots 1 and 3, or 2 and 4. Try and read up on your motherboard and it's specs before upgrading the ram. You may get a doubling of ram speed just from matching up your ram to the correct slots. As for the sluggishness after days of running the computer: [url="http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-1400043.html"]http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-1400043.html[/url] Try a memory scrubber. Even in XP, the memory can get bogged down over time. Anytime you start a program, the system allocates the memory needed to the new program. When that program shuts down, the system doesn't always grab back all the memory it should. Over time (days), this can leave a lot of your memory sitting in a useless limbo. I'd say you have a combination of bottlenecked pc2100, gunked up ram, and possibly ill placed ram on the mobo. Working through all the minor fixes should get you back up to speed pretty fast... BTW, also check out how fast a cpu your mobo can take. You might be able to upgrade your cpu on the cheap and get another big performance boost that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted March 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 [quote name='mongoloido' date='Mar 11 2005, 08:58 AM']Some of this may be due to your motherboard too. Any idea what it is? Some motherboard support dual channel. Dual channel means it sends half the information to one channel and half to the other. In that instance, it becomes very important to have the ram in specific slots. FOr example, on my motherboard, slots 1 and 2 are channel 1 and slots 3 and 4 are channel 2. To run the ram as fast as possible, I need to have my matching sticks of ram in slots 1 and 3, or 2 and 4. Try and read up on your motherboard and it's specs before upgrading the ram. You may get a doubling of ram speed just from matching up your ram to the correct slots. As for the sluggishness after days of running the computer: [url="http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-1400043.html"]http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-1400043.html[/url] Try a memory scrubber. Even in XP, the memory can get bogged down over time. Anytime you start a program, the system allocates the memory needed to the new program. When that program shuts down, the system doesn't always grab back all the memory it should. Over time (days), this can leave a lot of your memory sitting in a useless limbo. I'd say you have a combination of bottlenecked pc2100, gunked up ram, and possibly ill placed ram on the mobo. Working through all the minor fixes should get you back up to speed pretty fast... BTW, also check out how fast a cpu your mobo can take. You might be able to upgrade your cpu on the cheap and get another big performance boost that way. [right][post="60420"][/post][/right][/quote] i was pondering that. its a dell poweredge 400sc but appearently there were a few differnet models/specs its got the 2.8 and the 80 gig drive, i gotta go break/fix my parents computer.. i shall research more tonight.. thanks for the info... my RAm is scheduled to come wednesday next week.... the day before i leave on vacation for 8 days SON OF A BITCH.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steggyD Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 Check out this [url="http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8"]unofficial Poweredge 400SC FAQ link[/url]. It says it takes dual channel RAM. This is a good thing. Just make sure you put matching RAM sticks in slots 1 and 2 and slots 3 and 4. Follow [url="http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe400sc/en/it/m0009aa0.htm#1081855"]this diagram[/url] here. So, put your 2 sticks of 512 into slots 1 and 2. Then put your 2 sticks of 256 into slots 3 and 4. And this is the amount of RAM I use in my PC, it is plenty. I can alt-tab out of AAO and do other things and the PC doesn't slow down a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted March 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 [quote name='steggyD' date='Mar 11 2005, 07:47 PM']Check out this [url="http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8"]unofficial Poweredge 400SC FAQ link[/url]. It says it takes dual channel RAM. This is a good thing. Just make sure you put matching RAM sticks in slots 1 and 2 and slots 3 and 4. Follow [url="http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe400sc/en/it/m0009aa0.htm#1081855"]this diagram[/url] here. So, put your 2 sticks of 512 into slots 1 and 2. Then put your 2 sticks of 256 into slots 3 and 4. And this is the amount of RAM I use in my PC, it is plenty. I can alt-tab out of AAO and do other things and the PC doesn't slow down a bit. [right][post="60772"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote] nice find... thanks for the info mongo and steggy... definetly savedme some ass pains.. also, newegg has a few monitors in my price range im at this moment on my parents gateway fpd1730 that i bought them a year ago..17" real nice on all resolutions... so im assumnig i will be fine, but i will post some monitor links directly later ifneed be toget some opinions... although my questions may already be answered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mongoloido Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 [quote name='steggyD' date='Mar 11 2005, 08:47 PM']Check out this [url="http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8"]unofficial Poweredge 400SC FAQ link[/url]. It says it takes dual channel RAM. This is a good thing. Just make sure you put matching RAM sticks in slots 1 and 2 and slots 3 and 4. Follow [url="http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pe400sc/en/it/m0009aa0.htm#1081855"]this diagram[/url] here. So, put your 2 sticks of 512 into slots 1 and 2. Then put your 2 sticks of 256 into slots 3 and 4. And this is the amount of RAM I use in my PC, it is plenty. I can alt-tab out of AAO and do other things and the PC doesn't slow down a bit. [right][post="60772"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote] According to that diagram, I would think you want your 512s in slots 1 and 3 and the others in 2 and 4. In order for dual channel to work, you need one of each matched ram in each channel (Channels marked A and B ). It speeds things up by sending the information in alternating segments between channel A and channel B. Lemme double check, but I'm almost positive you'll want to match up your ram in a 1/3 , 2/4 configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steggyD Posted March 19, 2005 Report Share Posted March 19, 2005 Did you ever get this RAM? I'm curious as to which way the dual channel works. Cause according to the diagram, mongo is right. But the other link says to do it the other way. Let us know how it went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted March 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2005 i did, i got it the day before i left for vacation, im sitting in denver now. also turns out i only has 1 stick of 128mb ram that was actually pc3200, dunno where that came from.... so i just stuck tehm in 1 & 2 and the 128 in 3, which with 3 it probably wont matter, im pondering rabbing another 1 gig pack and having 2 gig total.... its that or a video card... but what i want in a video card is a video card and tv tuner/capture card. whic aPPEARS PRICEY... so we shall see... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BengalsOwn Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 [quote name='GoBengals' date='Mar 18 2005, 09:39 PM']i did, i got it the day before i left for vacation, im sitting in denver now. also turns out i only has 1 stick of 128mb ram that was actually pc3200, dunno where that came from.... so i just stuck tehm in 1 & 2 and the 128 in 3, which with 3 it probably wont matter, im pondering rabbing another 1 gig pack and having 2 gig total.... its that or a video card... but what i want in a video card is a video card and tv tuner/capture card. whic aPPEARS PRICEY... so we shall see... [right][post="64541"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote] 2 gb of ram is overkill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-GoBengals- Posted March 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2005 [quote name='BengalsOwn' date='Mar 21 2005, 09:20 AM']2 gb of ram is overkill. [right][post="65272"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote] is it even possible to have too much ram? id like to keep this system fr 3-4 years without having to much much $$ into it, most systems come with a gig of ram right now, so as i know 1-1.5 is plenty, 2 gig would proably keep me save from upgrading for some time, i can always toss a 3.2-3.4 processor in there in a year or two if needed. and itll hold 4 hard drives so space wont be an issue. maybe i should just get a 512 stick for now, or even leave it as is? suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BadassBengal Posted March 27, 2005 Report Share Posted March 27, 2005 Woah. I thought each motherboard only supported one type of ram. But you're saying you have pc3200 and pc2100 in that one PC. Wow. I'm gettin kinda behind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengals_12th_Man Posted March 31, 2005 Report Share Posted March 31, 2005 In my old pc, I have 512 of pc2700 and 256 of pc 2100. Its not a problem, but the 2700 runs at 2100 speeds. Thats the only draw back that I know of... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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