RAM

I know next to nothing about RAM, and I'm just wondering how do I tell what speed RAM I have and what type it is eg. DDR2 3200, DDR 2700. Also is it faster to have one 1 GIG stick of ram or two 512 sticks?

---

Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

My (incomplete) knowledge on this:

Dual Channel RAM is supposed to be a little faster with 2 512MB sticks than with a single 1GB stick. It's splitting work on the two. Your motherboard have to support dual channel RAM for this to make a difference, though.

You can combine two sticks of the same type (DDR, ect.) but at different speeds (3200, 2700 ect.) but they will both run at the lower speed as far as I know.

When starting up BIOS it normally displays your RAM, this is the first place you'd see it. You can google for some free RAM analyzer tools for a more comfortable check. I bet it's a 3200 DDR stick, but how could I know?

go to start > run > (then type) dxdiag. this will tell almost everything about your computer. it doesnt tell the type of RAM though

---

Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

I just had the same problem. I wanted to buy ram a few days ago, but I didnt know what type to get - so I read my mobo manual :biggrin: And opened the my case and looked at the ram type. Now I have brought it (2 512 sticks with duel channel)

---

Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

Lol, I had the very same problem, went to buy some RAM myself.

I ran a tool called CPU-Z, and it told me exactly what type of RAM memory was on my motherboard (manufacturer, speed, PCxxxx number, bla bla)

---

:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

Everest will do it too ... is that thing free anymore? I don't remember.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I don't think so, but I think orph left a download link to his version on the forums somewhere...

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Dark_Kilauea said:
I don't think so, but I think orph left a download link to his version on the forums somewhere...

Sadly, I lost my briefcase when I lost my DSL.

But, Sandra is still free to my knowledge. And its a pretty good diagnostic utility.

In a worse case scenario, you can always use google. If you type the numbers on the side of the ram into the search window, you can find the ram you have easy enough.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I have the last home version of Everest online, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to give the link out publicly. (PM me if you want it) Or use another application. If you JUST want the ram ... Everest, or something as such, would be overkill, since it has many functionalities. (One of which is telling you what temperature your GPU and GPU Memory are at ... which is one of the only reasons I keep the thing around)

Also, Hal, to answer you question: Neither way should be explicitly faster. One of the only ways I could imagine it being slowed down is if you have 2x 512MB sticks and something that is stored contiguously begins at the end of memory on the first stick and continues in memory on the second stick. But, to my knowledge, the chipset doesn't allow this to happen. (I think) But, in general one large pool should be larger ... BUT ... it could become fragmented easier and would take longer to cleanup. But, the system would do it to all ram anyway, so that's a null point. (er ... :biggrin: ... never-mind)

But ... you wouldn't notice ANY of this anyway. So, it doesn't really matter. I'd say go for a 1GB stick, just because it takes less slots on the board and that'd allow you to have more memory. EVEN if you want duel channel (which has little advantages) you could have two 1GB sticks 2CH instead of two 512MB sticks in 2CH ... it'd run the same speed ... but you have more of it ... AND having more ram will make your entire computer run faster, since it would minimize the amount of swapping that takes place between memory and the HDD ... and accessing the HDD is very sloooooooooooow ... relatively, of course.

I hope that answers your question ... and doesn't race more. (No one will get that last .. pathetic joke)

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Does seem a bit redundant to give RAM advice to a 9000 series doesn't it Crono.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Thanks guys

---

Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

Gaara said:
Thanks guys

Welcome... Ahem.. I mean, even though my advice was only marginally helpful and all.

BTW, edit your avatar a bit. I would be much more impressed with a 9000 series photoeye that was black around the edges.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Sorry, I got confused. I saw HAL ... not Gaara. And just to be perfectly clear .. HAL is better. Isn't someone already registered as HAL 9000 here? Lame.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah I just didn't like the Gaara avatar I just put the HAL pic temporarily.

---

Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

Well, I like the HAL avatar personally. It needs a bit of editing for Snarkpits black theme but otherwise its a cool beaners image.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Well, I like the HAL avatar personally. It needs a bit of editing for Snarkpits black theme but otherwise its a cool beaners image.

I use the white theme because I don't like reading white text on black backgrounds. Never been a fan of dark website designs.

reaper47 said:
I use the white theme because I don't like reading white text on black backgrounds. Never been a fan of dark website designs.

I don't fault you as it was certainly an option that was implemented for members to use but, Snarkpit was designed to be black, with white text and the majority use it.

That said, I am sure that the HAL photoeye can be edited to have a clear background suitable to any theme choice.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

reaper47 said:
I use the white theme because I don't like reading white text on black backgrounds. Never been a fan of dark website designs.

I don't fault you as it was certainly an option that was implemented for members to use but, Snarkpit was designed to be black, with white text and the majority use it.
That said, I am sure that the HAL photoeye can be edited to have a clear background suitable to any theme choice.

A transparent gif!

reaper47 said:
A transparent gif!

All I know is what I see. Its a HAL photoeye with a white border on my black theme.

It looks odd.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.