Pc2700 and Pc2100

So I had 512 Mb of PC2700 Ram and I just found another stick of 256 Mb of Pc2100 Ram, well I figured I would throw it in my comp and Im curious if there would be problems with either of the chips interfacing with each other?

For what its worth I ran PcMark and got a 3130 with both sticks. A previous score was 3145 without the second stick of Pc2100 ram.

The difference is small but I could see a difference like that just running the program twice in a row and get 2 different, but similar scores.

The conclusion I draw however is that I might actually be slowing my computer down with the second stick. I have yet to do the most obvious test and run it seperatly with the first stick and then the second one. But Im lazy so ill do that later,( ie tonight).

Anyone else see something wrong? Was I wrong in expecting a measurable difference?

by adding your second stick of pc2100, you slowed the pc2700 down to the pc2100 speeds. It's nice to have the extra 256 megs; it's really nice. You benchmarked and it seemed to only have dropped the scores very minimally: that is a good sign! Sure, it's a little bit slower, but you have 50% more! This, in turn, will make up for the speed because windows won't have to read into the virtual memory as often.

Just try using normal programs and loading games, photoshop, big programs, etc. If you find it to be better, definitely keep it! If you don't see any improvement, keep it. If you see a decrease, make your own judgement if it's worth it or not.

Oh I guess the other thing i was expecting is that when my computer boots up, with two sticks i would have expected it to say "Memory Runs in Dual Channel" , however, it says "blah blah blah Single Channel" like it does with just 1 stick. There isnt some obvious thing im missing is there? Like I should put it in a different memory slot?

Yamiyanazz said:

by adding your second stick of pc2100, you slowed the pc2700 down to the pc2100 speeds. It's nice to have the extra 256 megs; it's really nice. You benchmarked and it seemed to only have dropped the scores very minimally: that is a good sign! Sure, it's a little bit slower, but you have 50% more! This, in turn, will make up for the speed because windows won't have to read into the virtual memory as often.

Just try using normal programs and loading games, photoshop, big programs, etc. If you find it to be better, definitely keep it! If you don't see any improvement, keep it. If you see a decrease, make your own judgement if it's worth it or not.

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Not neccesarilly. If he has his mobo set to run at 166fsb then the PC2100 is actually running OC'ed and if it isnt overheating or giving errors then thats awesome. And judging by his increased score in PCmark the memory isnt getting clocked back to PC2100 speeds. You shouldnt have any problems with running two mismatched sticks of memory, in my experience they either work reliably or they dont. You generally know within your first couple of hours of gaming if they will work correctly or not. Good luck, the extra mb's are worth it.

TUK101 said:

Not neccesarilly. If he has his mobo set to run at 166fsb then the PC2100 is actually running OC'ed and if it isnt overheating or giving errors then thats awesome. And judging by his increased score in PCmark the memory isnt getting clocked back to PC2100 speeds. You shouldnt have any problems with running two mismatched sticks of memory, in my experience they either work reliably or they dont. You generally know within your first couple of hours of gaming if they will work correctly or not. Good luck, the extra mb's are worth it.

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Don't forget guys. Timings. When you put PC2700 in and it was at 2,2,2,5 and suddenly a stick of PC2100 goes in the system might set it to spd and set it to 2.5,3,3,7. Happens all the time when people put generic PC3200 (3,3,3,8) in to a machine with say Corsair XMS that defaults 2,2,2,5.

So I downloaded CPU-Z because I was looking up other information, but I stumbled across this...

Apparently either Im retarded or something is up that I dont see. the 512 stick was PC2100, or is now being recognized as 2100. However the 256 Mb stick which was labeled PC2100 is now being recognized at PC2300. Now personally I dont ever remember PC2300 being made....

And then when I look at each stick by itself the PC2100 max speed is 133mhz, and the PC2300 is max at 142 Mhz. However when I go back to the memory in general, it says it runs at 148 mhz....

Anyone got any thoughts?

Roofles said:

Oh I guess the other thing i was expecting is that when my computer boots up, with two sticks i would have expected it to say "Memory Runs in Dual Channel" , however, it says "blah blah blah Single Channel" like it does with just 1 stick. There isnt some obvious thing im missing is there? Like I should put it in a different memory slot?

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they have to be the same size in each channel.

damn...

I kind of figured that because they were different sticks etc etc..

if you can get your hands on another stick of 256 you'd probably be golden. i'm not familiar with your mobo, but with mine, i can put two stick in slots one and two and as long as they add up to what's in slot three i'm good to go.

Roofles said:

So I downloaded CPU-Z because I was looking up other information, but I stumbled across this...

Apparently either Im retarded or something is up that I dont see. the 512 stick was PC2100, or is now being recognized as 2100. However the 256 Mb stick which was labeled PC2100 is now being recognized at PC2300. Now personally I dont ever remember PC2300 being made....

And then when I look at each stick by itself the PC2100 max speed is 133mhz, and the PC2300 is max at 142 Mhz. However when I go back to the memory in general, it says it runs at 148 mhz....

Anyone got any thoughts?

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I know why this happens sometimes. Get gets PC2300 because some ram runs PC2100 at CAS 2 and up to 143 at CAS 2.5/3. My old Kingston did so if One stick is making the faster stick go to a slower CAS it will be able to read the 143.

Interesting, before I worry about the speeds they are at now, what are the original clocks of PC2700 ? or do those differ from stick to stick and brand to brand? Because id like to get the pc2100 stick up to that speed.

Roofles said:

Interesting, before I worry about the speeds they are at now, what are the original clocks of PC2700 ? or do those differ from stick to stick and brand to brand? Because id like to get the pc2100 stick up to that speed.

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Differs stick to stick brand to brand. Early Pc2700 was just PC2100 CAS 2 ram set at CAS 3. Later most of it was CAS 2.

Yeah thats what I figured when someone mentioned the Corsair RAM ealier.

Ill screw with my timings tomorrow if I get the chance.