ram upgrade advice needed

vabhu · 09-09-2007, 02:08 AM

Hey friends

I want to upgrade my system's ram
My mobo is Mercury PI845GLM-L & 256 mb sdram dont know the frequency
My mobo support ddr 266mhz ram

I want to add 1gb ram
Can i add ddr 400mhz ram as it is easily available
what to do very much confused

Thanks in advance

dOm1naTOr · 09-09-2007, 02:55 AM

ull have to use only the new DDR400 1gb stick as using different frequent ram wud sometimes spoil any of the ram odules[mostly in Intel 845 nd 865 based mobos].
If u use DDR400 then itll work as DDR333 and will work fine.
U can't use DDR ram if ur mobo only supports SD ram. See if there is 2 nothes on each ram slot.
two notches for SD and 1 notch for DDR.

vabhu · 09-09-2007, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aravind_n20

ull have to use only the new DDR400 1gb stick as using different frequent ram wud sometimes spoil any of the ram odules[mostly in Intel 845 nd 865 based mobos].
If u use DDR400 then itll work as DDR333 and will work fine.
U can't use DDR ram if ur mobo only supports SD ram. See if there is 2 nothes on each ram slot.
two notches for SD and 1 notch for DDR.

Thanks aravind_n20 for reply

i have some confusion that my manual says it supports ddr 266mhz.
And u said to iuse a single module of 1gb 400 ram
will it be fine as my mobo only support 266mhz

dOm1naTOr · 09-09-2007, 03:43 AM

DDR400 will down the speed to suit ur mobo. its ok,but it shud have DDR slots. U shouldn't use the existing 256 if u use new 1GB. It may sometimes work, but its risky.

vabhu · 09-09-2007, 03:55 AM

aravind_n20

i just checked it has ddr slots and i m using 256mb 133mhz sdram
so can i go with single slot 1gb 400 mhz ram

sashijoseph · 09-09-2007, 08:59 AM

Remove the sdram first and then use the ddr.Clear?

dOm1naTOr · 09-09-2007, 11:44 AM

SD and DDR have different slots. So DDR won't fit in SD slots.

Cool G5 · 09-09-2007, 11:52 AM

^Right.DDR ram modules won't fit in SDRAM slot which ur mobo has.U will be required to purchase only SD ram.SD ram is costlier than DDR.

sashijoseph · 09-09-2007, 07:16 PM

Some early boards used to come with both types of slots.I think he's speaking of such a board.
afaik you can connect only one type,either Sdram or DDR at one time.

Cool G5 · 09-09-2007, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Some early boards used to come with both types of slots.I think he's speaking of such a board.

I haven't seen a mobo with slots for both DDR & SD ram.
Do anyone knows such a mobo?

vabhu · 09-09-2007, 10:20 PM

hey guyz
My mobo supports ddr ram as my ram is ddr sdram
its box & manual says it supports ddr ram
guyz tell me my mobo supports ddr 256mhz wiill it support ddr 400mhz

plz help me out of this trouble

Cool G5 · 09-09-2007, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vabhu

hey guyz
My mobo supports ddr ram as my ram is ddr sdram
its box & manual says it supports ddr ram
guyz tell me my mobo supports ddr 256mhz wiill it support ddr 400mhz

plz help me out of this trouble

U can definately use DDR 400mhz ram,but it will run only at 256 mhz.

vabhu · 10-09-2007, 01:12 AM

anyone else

i just want to make it confirm

Nav11aug · 10-09-2007, 03:51 AM

remove the SDRAM and install 2x512 MB DDR .. DDR requires that u install the RAM in 2 slots of the bank to run at full speed..
correct me if im wrong

sashijoseph · 10-09-2007, 08:01 AM

Quote:

I haven't seen a mobo with slots for both DDR & SD ram.
Do anyone knows such a mobo?

Look here : http://eu.shuttle.com/archive/en/mv42n.htm#specificatio
And here : http://www.shentech.com/jep4pe4viap41.html
Two of my friends are still using such vintage boards.

Quote:

remove the SDRAM and install 2x512 MB DDR .. DDR requires that u install the RAM in 2 slots of the bank to run at full speed..
correct me if im wrong

Even in dual channel mode you can't achieve the max speed supported by the ram if the motherboard isn't capable.For eg fitting 2 sticks of ddr400 won't make them run at 400 Mhz if the motherboard supports only 266.Instead they'll run at 266Mhz but you'll see a performance gain in dual ch confguration because now 128 bits of data are transferred at once instead of 64.Hence the transfer rate effectively doubles.
And your motherboard should support dual channel mode in the first place.