Matched ddr Memory

[avatar8481]

I was running an Athlon 1400 on an MSI k7 Master with 2 sticks of generic 256mb pc2100 ddr ram. Big suprise one stick dies, which of course I only figured out when I was installing xp and it kept crashing, and now I'm going to replace it, I intend to buy Crucial as all indications are it's teh best, or nearly the best, should I replace both sticks at once, even if one of them is fine to have matched chips or is it alright to mix and match memory like this. Note I intend to keep the replacement identical to the broken stick just a better manufacturer. Thanks in advance.

Michael Pokorny

 

[mudskipper]

You should be fine mixing and matching (in theory, of course). I seldom see problems mixing DDR.

 

[MA5]

Hi
All AMD K7 CPUs require high grade RAMS (branded).
Low-grade sticks (generic) and K7 do not go together well.

 

[Grenage]

Yes you should be fine mixing them, done it many times myself.

 

[cdogg]

It's OK to mix. However, there is one thing you'll want to keep in mind.

First of all, latency can be a factor. Let's say that the crucial stick is CL 2.5 or CL 2.0 and the generic stick is CL 3.0. Well, then both sticks will run at CL 3.0. The higher the number, the longer it takes for your CPU and cache to scan rows in RAM. It may only be noticeable in intensive apps and some games if you've got high latency.

If it's not a big deal to you, then I wouldn't worry about it. The overall difference probably won't be noticeable in common everyday apps.
ck_blk@yahoo.com