Same RAM or scrap the lot?

[breamster]

I bought my PC a couple of years ago and it has the ASUS A8R-MVP motherboard - which allows upto 4Gb RAM

It came with 2GB (2x 1GB) and taking the side off today and looking at the RAM sticks they are "RENDITION" - RM12864Z40B - 1GB DDR400 PC3200.

I'm looking to get another 2GB to take me up to my full quota on the mobo.

Looking at the OcUK site they don't appear to sell the exact type, but they do sell Crucial 1GB DDR PC3200 CAS3 - but it states 200Mhz - is this the same as DDR400?

Another site does sell the 1 GB DDR400 Rendition DIMM 184pin PC3200 - but is a little more expensive and I want to "keep it in the OcUK family"!!

What is the best choice? Is the OcUK compatible with my exisitng mobo and memory?

Or would it be better to scrap the other memory I have and install a later technology - DDR3 for example - or is my mobo not compatible?

Thanks in advance!

 

[hp7909]

Or would it be better to scrap the other memory I have and install a later technology - DDR3 for example - or is my mobo not compatible?

I'm afraid not compatible. Any make DDR (A.K.A. DDR1) RAM sticks will fit into that mobo, but for max speed make sure its DDR400 PC3200.

Check out Crucial's website. They'll guide you what RAM is compatible with your mobo.

Also, hope you running a 64-bit OS (XP, Vista or even Linux)? If not you'll only get 3.5GB max from 4GB. Unfortunately that's just the limitation of 32bit & no workaround/solution

 

[PhoenixUK]

I'm afraid your motherboard will take only DDR1.

You can buy any PC3200 sticks and they will work. However, as I had an issue back in times with this types of memory make sure if your one is either dual or single channel and buy the same type. ( my mate once had a problem that his mobo took only dual channel memory, normal sticks didnt work ).

DDR400 is Double data rate 400 which is 400/2 = 200mhz real speed.
So yeah DDR400 and 200mhz is the same.

Also considering that he uses DDR1, the machine is pretty old ( P4 /AMD 64? ) I wouldnt bother running vista on it.

And I still think that XP32 with 3.5gb will run better than vista with 4gb. Due to vista eating like 4x more than XP...

 

[hp7909]

Due to vista eating like 4x more than XP...

Vista makes use of RAM more efficiently! Yes you need more depending on what you do & which version, i.e. X86 or X64, but look at DDR2 RAM prices at the moment

But have to agree that early DDR(1) mobos we're picky on RAM. Therefore make sure you buy ones paired by the manufacturer, i.e. sold in a pack of 2