this is a techy question so i apologize upfront.
my motherboard supports 4 DIMM DDR ram, up to 4gb.
it was 4 slots, 2 green, 2 blue.
it currently has a 512mb stick in it.
i was about to buy another 512mb stick.
but can i just mix it up and buy 3 1gb sticks ??

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http://www.cev3.com/

Yep

As far as i know, as long as you buy sticks of RAM which operate at the same speed, then the RAM will operate as efficiently as possible.

Even then, you can usually mixmatch different speeds, but they will all run at the slowest speed.

also for 4gb you have to normally use registered or ECC or both. read your motherboard manual to make sure. if i were you i would NOT run 4gb without at the very least registered.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunsnail Even then, you can usually mixmatch different speeds, but they will all run at the slowest speed.

Hmm...I always thought it was cumulative.

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Nope its not accumulative, think of it as a pipe that varies in diameter, the smaller the pipes diameter the slower the rate of water out of the pipe will be, so its best to have the same "pipes" in memory as that will reduce errors due to underclocking of the more powerful "pipes" to compensate for the less-powerful "pipes". Get dual channel memory as these usually come in packs of 2 sticks of 1GB each and are from the same time of productions so they will have a lesser chance of errors. If the memory is PC3200 or greater get sticks with heat sinks or heat-sheating on them as this will also disipate the heat created by the sticks and thus decreasing your rate of errors even further.