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Vdor
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Trying 2 different sticks of RAM on my PC

Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:26 am

Hey everyone I got a simple question that you guys might be able to answer:

I currently have on my PC the following motherboard ASUS M3N78-VM with a stick of 2GB Kingston RAM (KVR800D2N6/2G); I got another stick from my sister' PC which broke down (faulty PSU) that is Kingston too but a different serial (KVR667D2N5/2G) they are both DDR2 but one works at 667MHz CL5 and the other at 800MHz CL6, I have yet to test the one from the broken down PC but I would like to know if they could be paired in the current motherboard and if I would have any performance benefits or losses thanks... BYW both sticks are on the QVL
 
pikaporeon
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Re: Trying 2 different sticks of RAM on my PC

Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:17 am

Both sticks will clock at the lower one's rate (667mhz)
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Vdor
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Re: Trying 2 different sticks of RAM on my PC

Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:34 am

pikaporeon wrote:
Both sticks will clock at the lower one's rate (667mhz)

OK, then I should have no trouble using them... I imagine that I cannot use them in a dual channel configuration, right?
 
Ari Atari
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Re: Trying 2 different sticks of RAM on my PC

Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:40 am

In my experience, ram sticks try to do what you tell them to do. It's like overclocking a processor and pushing it beyond its specs. When installing to different kinds of sticks however, both sticks are forced to run at the same speed and the slower one usually causes stability problems first, which limits how far you can push the ram. In the non-overclocking world, I think the bios just chooses the slower speed to run at automatically, which slows things down.

OK, then I should have no trouble using them... I imagine that I cannot use them in a dual channel configuration, right?


No, you can still set them up in a dual channel config, just make sure you plug the sticks in the correct slots.
 
Vdor
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Re: Trying 2 different sticks of RAM on my PC

Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:01 pm

OK I will give them a try and run a memtest just to be sure everything is all right. Thanks for the help everyone...

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