Should I Install My New Ram?

[(>Zero Cool<)]

Mornin folks, or afternoon/evenin depending where you are.

I am looking for a bit of guidence please, I have manaed to get a hold of some Corsair 1GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX (2x512MB) Platinum ram and I am wondering whether I should install it into my current mobo or wait. I know it might be a daft question but my mobo doesnt support dual ddr (as far as I know) and currently has 2 sticks of 256 PC2100 ram in it, I am hoping to get a better mobo and wondered if I would reap the benefits of my new ram installed in my current board, or should I wait until I have a new board. I have decidednot to install it using the tried and tested method of securing it with string so there may be some hope for me yet (c the post re. the radeon 9800 card)

Thanks

Zero :)

p.s. these are my current mobo specs

Motherboard Properties:
Motherboard ID 08/13/2002-SiS-645-6A6IXM4DC-00
Motherboard Name MSI MS-6533(G)

Front Side Bus Properties:
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 533 MHz
Bandwidth 4266 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties:
Bus Type SiS MuTIOL
Bus Width 16-bit

Motherboard Physical Info:
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR
RAM Slots 2 DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio
Form Factor Micro ATX
Motherboard Size 230 mm x 240 mm
Motherboard Chipset SiS645/650

Motherboard Manufacturer:
Company Name Micro-Star International
Product Information http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mai...ro_mbd_list.php (http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_list.php)
BIOS Download http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios...pt_bos_list.php (http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_list.php)

[zapjb]

Just me, but I&#39;d wait.

[ilw]

ditto

[lynx]

It can&#39;t do any harm to install the new memory now. You won&#39;t get the full potential from the memory in terms of speed, but you can almost certainly get some improvement in terms of ram timings - set the timings as low as you can, the higher spec memory will certainly be capable of responding quickly enough.

For example, if the cas of this new memory is 2.5 cycles, that&#39;s 2.5x5ns = 12.5ns. (1sec/200MHz=5ns). But your clock speed is only 133 MHz, 1sec/133MHz=7.5ns, so you can cope with cas set at 12.5/7.5, which is only 1.67 cycles. Other performance improvements in this memory means you could use cas of 2 cycles. You can tighten the other ram timings in a similar fashion, if your mobo permits.

The other advantage would be that you have 1GB of memory, instead of 512MB.

Give it a try, after all, how long is a piece of string?

Edit: poor maths.

[(>Zero Cool<)]

Ok folks thanks for the feedback :)

If I decide to install the ram can I do any damage to it, the mobo or anything else, as I said I have no real idea here :blink: :unsure:

@lynx Thanks for the advice again :D , unfortunately a lot of what you suggest goes way over my head and I am not too sure how to do it. Btw the ram is cas 3, that bit I know, what it means is another thing completely. :blink:

[zapjb]

You say you&#39;re going to get a new mobo. Most of the top mobos are &#036;125 or less. Those sticks of 512 are what &#036;80-150 a piece. The chances are nothing will get f&#39;d up. But why chance f&#39;ing up those sweet corsair sticks. I really think those 512 sticks are worth &#036;150 x 2 = &#036;300. Risk that on an old &#036;50 mobo. Not I.

[lynx]

You certainly can&#39;t do any harm to anything.

Cas delay is the amount of time needed for the address signals to stabilize before it is safe to read/write the data. It is usually expressed in clock cycles because you can only alter the timing by the number of cycles (or half cycles for DDR ram), but of course in reality it is a period of time.

But if you are not running the memory at it&#39;s designed speed, you can recalculate the timings in relation to the new clock speed - simply multiply by the new clock speed and divide by the old clock speed. In your case that is 133/200, or 0.67.

So you can multiply all the memory timings by 0.67, there are 4 of them, but which ones you can change are dependant on the motherboard. You will probably see figures such as 6-3-2-3 for ram timing, but these assume operation at 200MHz. Adjusted for your reduced frequency these become 4-2-1.33-2, but that&#39;s just an example. In any case, I doubt if your motherboard permits less than 5-2-2-2, but that is still a big improvement.

Edit: I&#39;ve just found out that your mobo supports DDR333 memory directly. Try setting 166 MHz Dram Frequency, with cas 2.5 and System Performance in Fast mode.