Will Corsair "Value Select" work with XMS?

[ArBiTaL 24]

Hi all,

I built my PC quite a long time back now by computer standards (P4 3.06HT Northwood, back when no-one had even heard of 3GHz yet and the things still cost £500 a pop). I got 1GB of RAM, a huge amount back in the day. It is Corsair XMS 3200, 2-2-2-5-T1 x2 512MB sticks.

Of course, times change and my PC is now looking a bit old and decrepit. Hell, my fabulous proc now goes for about £40 on eBay :/.

Either way, I don't have the money right now to buy a new PC, or even high-end RAM. However, I need an upgrade badly, my PC is lagging down like hell and I figure another 512MB or so should help out.

I can get a stick of Value Select off eBay for about £10, just over, but I'm wondering if it will cause any major problems running along the two sticks of XMS? The XMS sticks are not "matched" as far as I know, and I don't currecntly overclock so I don't think that would be an issue.

Just wondering if the Value sticks will work well with the XMS ones, or if it would slow/effect the system enough that any performance difference is negated by the problems and/or slow-down in memory speed. Damn, I really need a new PC.

Oh, for GBP > USD conversions, try: www.xe.com

Thanks!

 

[maxfly]

i would test your xms at the same timings and voltage that the value stick requires and check for stability before you pull the trigger.even then you may have problems if the ics arent the same as your xms.youll also lose dual channel with 3x512
if you can swing it i would look at a cheap set of 2x1gb value memory(keep an eye on the classifieds).just to avoid any compatability issues with mixing modules.
unfortunately you may not get rid of the lag by upgrading your memory.if its in game probs you probably would need a gpu upgrade.

 

[Moto7451]

They should work fine together, just at looser timings.

 

[TTimmy]

Mixing Rams is a crapshoot, sometimes you get lucky but most of the time there will be compromises. I've personally experienced this with corsair XMS2, my old revision 5.1 would overclock up to 900+ mhz while my newer ver7.1 would immediately crash if i push it beyond a 833mhz CAS5 no matter how many volts i fed it, so i had to run them at 800mhz for stability.

 

[ArBiTaL 24]

Damn... Sounds like it could be a problem then. Just to re-iterate, I'm not curently overclocking, so I wouldn't be pushing the RAM...

maxfly - Nah, it's not a gaming issue, just generally using Windows. I tend to have a lot open, so things tend to lag up a lot. I'm not a big gamer.. If I was, I would just be looking into saving my every penny (cent? ) to buy a whole new rig. My GPU isn't actually that bad, not that it gets much use beyond WoW and portal/HL2


Are the looser timings liable to make the system slower or the same on average than the performance upgrade by having the extra 1GB though? 'Cos there's no point in upgrading one thing is the negatives...negate the positives.

 

[TTimmy]

I think the Old adage of "More RAM is better than Faster RAM" will apply.