question about ram(dual channel, ecc, etc)

[kpassman]

this is sure confusing.....

I got in the Dell 400sc deal from FW w/ a p4 800FSB with 128mb pc3200 400mhz ecc ram. i want to expand my memory but i'm not sure what to do.

i'm thinking about getting a stick of mushkin 512mb pc3200 non ecc ram but i'm not sure it will work. all this talk about non ecc , ecc and dual channel is confusing me.

if i get the mushkin stick non ecc ram, will it work with my ecc ram? will i be able to achieve 800fsb? thanks!

[TheWizard]

First thing to do is find out what motherboard is in the PC. Once you know tha make and model, you can find the specs of it online and figure out what kind of RAM it supports. I don't think you can mix and match ECC and non-ECC RAM, but I may be wrong.

[tazdevl]

First thing to do is find out what motherboard is in the PC. Once you know tha make and model, you can find the specs of it online and figure out what kind of RAM it supports. I don't think you can mix and match ECC and non-ECC RAM, but I may be wrong.

Correct.

[kpassman]

it's an intel 875p.

if i can't mix ecc and non ecc, can i still mix different brands in order to enable dual channel?

[CowboySlim]

For the Intel 875 chipset, this will work. It's a matched set of two 256Mb modules. You cannot use dissimilar modules and achieve dual channel functionality. You will not be able to use the current memory modules with the modules suggested above.

Slim

[kpassman]

last question...... can you mix pc2100 with pc3200?

[CowboySlim]

It should work. However, it will work at the speed of the slowest module and then only in the single channel mode. So you will not get the 875 FSB speed off 800Mhz, which is double of 400Mhz (PC3200). That mix will only go at 266MHz (PC2100).

Slim