Figured this was the place for it...

If I have a 2.8 P4 (prescott ) processor with an 800mhz FSB, and I'm planning on upgrading my RAM, should I be going with PC3200 or PC4000?

The computer is a Sony, and I don't plan on overclocking (if that would even be possible) or anything like that. Just looking for the best plug & play performance.
It's a 2x1 setup so I was thinking 2 x 1GB chips. Any suggestions?

 

No idea, but did you try www.crucial.com ? They seem to have a lot of answers and they recommend what's best for your computer.

 

depends on what your motherboard can support...dont get ram with a faster clock rate than what your mobo can support

perhaps the sony site/documentation might tell you what type of ram it is...and you'd have to search a bit hard to find out if your mobo can support faster

 

Just stop putting Doritos in your PC.....

 

But orange chips look faster and taste better...


And to the others, both PC3200 and PC4000 will work. It seems like PC4000 has more use for overclocking (not sure why) but they're both listed as compatible. The computer is currently running PC3200.

 

PC3200 most likely for that chipset. Depends on your board, but i'd imagine it's 2800 or 3200. Most likely 3200.

 

Well looking up the computer on crucial it says PC3200 but when you click the performance memory tab it says PC4000 works too. I guess I was just wondering if I'd even notice any difference in using 4000 over 3200 and whether it was worth it to go for the 4000.

 

Get 3200


4000 wont be a noticeable improvement and you have use 4000 exclusively, no mixing.

 

Pretty much what I was looking for.


Thanks to all for the suggestions

 

it depend on ur motherboard...if u get the PC4000 and ur system only handle a 400mhz FSB then its just gonna set itself slower. I usually try to by the better one if the prices isnt to far apart. If ur have one slow and one faster ram, it would set all the memory to the slower one. Reason why i get the faster one even if my computer wont take full advantage of it, is just in case in the future i upgraded my CPU/motherboard that would.

 

Ok, one more piece of info.

Opened her up and there are 4 RAM slots. The comp takes a max of 2GB, so 4x512 (or 2x1GB I suppose)

Since its already got 2 256 chips in there I figured I'd go with 2 more 512 chips for 1.5GB total.

So 2 more questions:
1) Does the comp only work at the timing of the slowest RAM? The two chips in there now are CL3 so if I buy CL2 would it be pointless since it would only work at CL3 anyway? Would the two speeds even work together?

and

2) What is the proper way to set them up on the mobo? The 4 slots are in 2 sets of 2, like this:
---A---
---B---

---C---
---D---

Currently the two 256 chips are in slots A & C. Does that mean A&C are matching slots and I should keep those there and put the two new chips in B&D? Or do I pair them up AB and CD?

Thanks again.

 

If the computer has dual channel capabilities... it doesn't matter what the speed of a pair of memory sticks are, as long as they are identical in each slot.

A computer sets it's CAS timing by the SLOWEST chip on the board... so if you have a 3-3-3-8 and a pair of chips which are 2-3-3-7... it will run at the first chip's speed.....

 

Thanks

 

Newegg r0x0rz.
1gb for 69 bucks after mail in rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220037


I'll try to post some benchmarks tomorrow once it's all installed