# PC3200 and PC2700 compatibility



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

ok so at the moment i have 512mb of PC2700 ram running in my system. Simple enough...ok. SO i have recently accquired another 512meg stick of ram but its PC3200. To my knowledge i can just insert the PC3200 stick in my other free slot and it will underclock to PC2700 speeds.

This is what i thought, but then a friend for some reason told me that it wouldnt work on my system. I have a fujitsu siemens D1526 motherboard (i know its bad). 

Could someone please tell me whether i can use this other stick of ram.

Thanks


----------



## keymaker (Jul 12, 2005)

it could or could not work.

if your motherboard supports 400mhz FSB, in which the pc3200 supports, then its ok. the thing is that, if the spare pc3200 you have is another a differ brand, it may or may not work on your computer.

your right that the pc3200 will underclock to the pc2700 supported FSB speed which is 333mhz.

to make sure, pop in the memory stick and see if your computer starting having stability problems.


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

im pretty sure my motherboard supports PC2700 only and not 3200. So im guessing the new ram will just be underclocked. Can brand really make that much difference when it comes to stability?

And are you saying that it will only work if my motherboard supports 400mhz speeds (which i dont think it does).
PC2700 speeds are the max it can support, so if i insert the PC3200 is it likely to work or not?

(Im a relative newbie as youve already guessed so thanks in advance)

EDIT:

the specs of my board

Specification 


mPGA478 Socket Intel® Pentium® 4 
Intel® 845GE Chipset 
*400/533MHz FSB* ( is that what i need to run pc3200 
2 DIMM Slots (DDRAM) 
184 pin, 2.5V, 64 bit, DDR PC333 
Max memory 2GB 
No ECC Support 
Integrated i845GE 2D / 3D Video Controller 
Integrated i845GE and AD1981 AC97 Audio Codec 
1 x Line In 
1 x Line Out 
1 x Microphone 
S/PDIF 
ATA 100 IDE Controller 
6 x PCI Slots (32bit) 
1 x AGP Slot 
2 x USB ports (USB 2.0) 
Integrated i82562ET LAN Controller 
WOL Support


----------



## UncleMacro (Jan 26, 2005)

The Intel 845GE doesn't run at PC3200 speeds. It will just underclock your PC3200 memory stick down to PC2700 which is fine because all PC3200 memory is required to be able to run at slower speeds. But memory speed isn't the only thing which can get you into trouble. You can occasionally run into problems because of other things like mismatched memory voltages or excessive loading of the bus. Running two mismatched sticks usually works fine in single channel motherboards like an 845GE but you can't tell for sure without trying. Plus the other stick in and use MemTest86 (instructions here) to make sure your memory is working properly. If you have problems then reverse which stick is in which memory slot and try again. Sometimes a mismatched pair works fine one way and has problems the other way.


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

now thats what i call definitive answering


----------



## oldmn (Oct 16, 2005)

What he is trying to tell you is put the ram in and run some tests if it works great but if it does not, then it won't work. :4-dontkno Some board are pickier than others, Sometimes you can build identical systems but one will accept things that the other one will not,There are to many variable to get into #1 is quality and tolarance of the components. :smile:


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

*Tried and failed*

oops, wrong post


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

*Tried and failed*

So then, i got the ram, and i got my PC open and ready, followed all instructions for inserting the ram, and began to boot up. Nothing happened. I got a black screen and 8 beeps (which apparantly is related to graphics cards :S)

Can someone tell me whether the RAM ive got will work with the motherboard.

Motherboard 


RAM 


I know niether of these are very good so i wont be surprised if they dont work.


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

bump ( just to keep up there)


----------



## jisc123 (May 17, 2003)

DrDomDom said:


> So then, i got the ram, and i got my PC open and ready, followed all instructions for inserting the ram, and began to boot up. Nothing happened. I got a black screen and 8 beeps (which apparantly is related to graphics cards :S)
> 
> Can someone tell me whether the RAM ive got will work with the motherboard.
> 
> ...


Is this with the pc2700 ram still in there? I know I've had some problem mixing some pc3200 and pc2700 on an old kt333 motherboard.


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

yup sure is, but it didnt work even when i took out the pc2700 and put in only the new stuff


----------



## jisc123 (May 17, 2003)

DrDomDom said:


> yup sure is, but it didnt work even when i took out the pc2700 and put in only the new stuff


Have you upgraded the bios lately? Otherwise, maybe the ram isnt compatible


----------



## DrDomDom (Aug 28, 2005)

well a technical friend of mine told me to set the memory timings to as high as possible ( or something like that in the bios) but the feature wasnt ther: and no i havent done a bios update - mainly because i dont know how


----------

