Give me some info about Memory, please

[Dusan]

Hi!
I just registerd in. And i am not an expert in comp.

Well I`ll explain from the begining. I`am going to buy a motherboard asus P4P800-x. As u can se I have intel and i can not oveclock. It is not expensive, and so i decided to buy it and sqize my procesor a little more. Before i post any questions about how to beguin overclockin I would like to know This:

I have 1GB Gail DDR400 that will work on this moteher boarl dual channel
I also have 2x DDR400 but they r 256MB, one is Elixir and the other is Veritech
If i put this two elder rams in the other two slots r the going to decrease performance of GAIL ram whitch is suppoted by this motherboard?

a yes I want to ask also what this numbers mean 2-2-2-6 about RAM.These r not numers of my RAM but i picked them up while reading some articles. Is there any article here whitch explain it or. can anyboy give me some explanation?

Tnx

[R4lN]

If I understand your question correct, you are asking if you can mix your two different sizes of ram? You can but the first rule of thrumb when it comes to memory is "not" to mismatch brands and sizes. If you have 1 pc3200 512 stick, dont put anything else in there except another pc3200 512 stick from the same maker. It can lead to several different types of issues. 2-2-2-6 is what they call cas latency. Latency you should know means how much time it takes to achieve a priority. the lower the cas-timings on the memory means the faster or more aggressive it is. You need good fast cas timing for overclocking. However, if you do not overclock, faster cas timings on a memory module can give you boot up issues on different types of motherboards. There you will need to relax the timings to let the computer boot. Im not a master overclocker. In fact I dont overclock. Someone here may know more. GL.

[Dusan]

I have 2 sticks 512mb Gail DDR400 - whitch is suported and written on board spec. for dual channeling ( i thought to put this in blue part on board)

and 2 sticks 256MB DDR400 but one is Elixir and other is Veritech (black part on board)

If I put the other two in, is there going to be a performance loss?

Is there a program to test if there is a performance loss or vice versa?

[R4lN]

if you have two different brands of memory I would highly NOT recommend mixing them into your board... you are exposing yourself to multiple possibilities of memory issues. Im not saying it would happen 100% but you have a good chance you will cause yourself problems. as for the dual channel goes. . check your motherboard book. just because the slots are blue doesnt mean the ram goes there. For dual channel boards. Most manufacturers put the memory into slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 to make the dual channel work. In other words, one could be black and one could be blue. Check your Book!!

[CCUABIDExORxDIE]

you could use a program called memtest to check for ram errors. just search for memtest on google and you should find it

[Dusan]

ok I will try memtest

if there r not errors than evrything is ok i presume?

tnx

[CCUABIDExORxDIE]

yea, if you get no errors, then you should be fine. id let it loop for like 12 hours atleast so it can fully scan your memory multiple times. id say let it pass no less then 20 times to make completely sure that its good and sturdy.

[Dusan]

ok thats is all about errors, but what about the performance
is it possible that if i put this other two sticks in there is going to be a performace loss

like if i have 2 sticks of GAIL 512 DDR400 they will work dula channel
and if i put in the other 2 sticks of 256 elixir and veritech also DDR400 they could stop working dual channel

Couse as i know, the ram is going to work as the worst RAM in these sticks.
Is it right?
How can I measure, what program can I use to measure performace, that there is no loss?

[Eldonko]

Use Sandra 2005 and benchmark memory bandwidth.