I have 512 MB of Ram and this is the next thing that I need to upgrade for my system.

Can someone explain to me what the code names/numbers mean to me, a thick consumer.

For example I am planning to buy two modules of the same type of Ram so that I get a gig and no conflicts from having differant sorts in my comp.  What is the differance between:

512MB PC-3200 DDR Memory

512MB PC2100 DDR  Memory

512MB PC-133 SDRAM Memory

512MB PC2700 DDR Memory


And so on.

Thanks.

Will

So the higher that number the faster the Ram then....  So what I want is a big number DDR?

Thanks for the advice Jonathan.  I was planning to get 2 new strips of RAM at once, thereby increasing my capacity to 1Gig and ensuring it is the same type.

Will

Cor Will, think yourself lucky at what youve got!
Dan

128Mb SDRAM! 

Quote:


How can I tell whether my system can use the DDR Ram without forking hard currency?  Thanks for your input.

Will

DDR has a different slot, refer to your manual and it will tell you what ram it will take and what the max speed it will run at is.

I assume DDR-SDRAM means Dual Data Rate Synchonised Dynamic Random Access Memory What a mouthful, no wonder they got an acronym

This is normal SDRAM in DDR format, but I haven't heard of it before and have no idea what it is & what slot it uses 8)

Jonathan 8)

nickle is right. 

512mb of quality ram is better than 1024mb of slow generic stuff, at least for Flight Simulator anyway.

You need to research your mainboard manual or the manufacturers website to determine the fastest RAM your motherboard supports.

If it's DDR Ram, then it won't hurt to buy over-spec if the cost is about the same. That way, you have more of a chance at using it in an upgrade later on.

Lastly, you aren't gonna notice much difference with your proposed upgrade and the money may be better spent on different hardware.

good luck

Indeed, DDR has much more bandwidth and higher FSB speeds.  I do think it is backwards compatable, for example, 333 FSB RAM would work with 266 FSB RAM.  Which leads to 400 FSB would work with 266 FSB RAM IFF RAM voltage is the same.  Going the other way, I recently read of a person who overclocked an AMD 2500 Barton to 3000 by changing the FSB to just over 400.  With PC2100 RAM!  And stated a stable system.
On CL speeds: I've read the pros and cons.  Some say not significant.  For my system the performance increase was significant.  Clearly CL2 was a better choice.  I note that THG tests of graphics cards using benchmarks, games and FS2004 use 512 MB Corsair best performing RAM.  CL2 is not available for the AMD 3200 CPU.  My next upgrade will likely be to an AMD 3000, 333 and I'll overclock PC2100 RAM to match.  THG tests show that the difference between the 333 and 400 MHz CPU is small and price gap is large.

I'll check the underclock of RAM out when I actually execute.  I may just turn over the current CPU and RAM to daughter and buy both new CPU and RAM.  Future stuff.