Memory speed compatibility w/lower end systems?

I need to test my DDR 400, PC 3200 memory in a friend's system to make sure the memory issues I'm having are not because of the memory itself.

Can I run PC 3200 RAM in a system that only supports 2100? In that case, would it just run at 2100 and not 3200?

What about DDR? I'm assuming that is not backwards compatible with SDRAM motherboards, correct?

TIA

DDR is not backwards compatible with plain SDRAM. It comes in 184 pin DIMMS instead of 166, so you can't get them into the same socket if you try (inless you use a mallet or something...). DDR is backwards compatible with itself, however. If you stick PC3200 memory in a board that only supports PC2100 memory, it will run at PC2100 speeds (133MHZ instead of 200MHz). This will help test if your memory works at all, but it won't find errors that only occur at higher speeds.

Gnufsh said:

DDR is not backwards compatible with plain SDRAM. It comes in 184 pin DIMMS instead of 166, so you can't get them into the same socket if you try (inless you use a mallet or something...). DDR is backwards compatible with itself, however. If you stick PC3200 memory in a board that only supports PC2100 memory, it will run at PC2100 speeds (133MHZ instead of 200MHz). This will help test if your memory works at all, but it won't find errors that only occur at higher speeds.

Click to expand...

Ok, that's what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation