Brewology

Im great with computers but dont know alot about memory. Im buying a new motherboard and would like to know if my current ram will work in the new mobo. My current type is DDR2 533 and the new one is DDR2 1066. will my current ram work? how does the whole ram compatibility thing work? thanks

When you say DDR2 533 and DDR2 1006, that also refers to the speed of the RAM. As a general rule of thumb you should really worry more about the max speed your mobo can handle and then get that :p While I believe you can get a slower speed than suggest for your mobo (I've never ran across a problem where the ram used on a mobo was too slow for it, but it can still happen) I wouldn't suggest using 533 if your mobo supports better. You can get like 2gb of 800 off newegg for $20 to $30. Or if you can afford 1066, even better, but 800 is still viable and cheap.

~Moved to general chat~

Oh well to be more specific My current one is PC2 4200 and the new one is PC2 8500

Well I mean yea it'll work, the "PC" name is dependent on the speed of the ram. The whole naming schema is based around the speed of that particular ram. I was just trying to make that connection that yea it should work, but I wouldn't suggest it as your using a much slower speed of ram compared to what your mobo can handle.

The RAM should work, yes, but isn't advisable if not just because the newer mobo can handle much faster RAM. It will work because it's still DDR2, but you may have to go into the bios and make sure that it is running at the appropriate timings after placing the sticks in the new board. If you're uneasy, try contacting the manufacturer of the motherboard and letting them know what exact make/ model your memory is. They'll most likely agree that it would work but would also be forced to inform you that you could put much better RAM in it.

Not too long ago, I had purchased GTA 4 for the PC, which is a giant resource hog for the computer. I had 2gb of good quality Wintec DDR2 800mhz RAM that was overclocked to 1066 and still couldn't play it well. I had access to some sticks of 533mhz RAM so I decided to try 3gb of DDR2 533 to see if it was better than 2gb of DDR2 800. The answer I found, is no. Even though I had a "capacity over speed" advantage with the 3gb of 533, it was still slower and in nearly all benchmarks I ran, I found that the results were improved when I had the DDR2 800 installed.

I would do as Ace says and try getting hold of some cheap DDR2 800 sticks if you are tight on a budget right now. In fact... I still have my 2gb of Wintec DDR2 800... I could maybe cut you a deal or something for it. It's tested and for sure will hit DDR2 1066mhz speeds even at 4-4-4-12 timings. That's some pretty nice latency.

Good to see you around btw, False chicken.

-DarkPacMan77-

why thanks, Glad to be back. Yeah im tight on money. thats why I want to use my old ram. I will get more eventually just wanted something to hold me over.

Well if you PM me we can talk about a deal between us if you want my fast RAM. It's two 1gb sticks for 2gb and it can overclock to 1066 with 4-4-4-12 timings. I'm a reliable person with real-world transactions.

-DarkPacMan77-