Can I use PC100 SD ram with PC66 SD ram..HELP!

[LemonHead]

Have a client who has a Dell PII300 system that uses PC-66 SDRAM. He purchased a 128 Meg Simple Technology OEM DIMM and put it in along with the origional 32 Meg DIMMs that came with the system. It seems to work fine, but I'm not so sure if it will be all that stable. He has been getting some system lock-ups at times. The system does not complain at all and all seems fine, but....

What's the rule of thumb? Back in the old days, one could mix a, say, 60ns stick with a 70ns stick but it would only be as fast as the slowest stick. Not sure what the impact is today. Simple Technology has spicific sticks it says to use with Dell systems.

Comments????

Thanks!

 

[LemonHead]

Bump

 

[sohcrates]

on an older dell system such as that, i would NOT suggest mixing DIMMS unless you call up, say, thechipmerchant.com or crucial.com , give them your exact mobo model, and then have them suggest RAM....

i've found it can be hard to please proprietary DELL mobo's with generic memory.

 

[LemonHead]

I would think that the system would really have a problem with memory it does not like. It seems it would give all sorts of errors from the start.

Also, been running SANDRA burn in and it does crash after about 250 tests or so even with the old ram in only. Must be something else going on. Dang! I hate these subtle problems that are harder than hell to find!!! :| :| :|

Thanks for the help!

 

[Chaotix]

My old vendor built PC w/ an Intel mobo runs just fine with 2 32MB PC66 sticks and a stick of 256MB PC133.

 

[CHiMPBizKiT]

From what I've heard, mixing different speed RAM should be perfectly fine. The only problem is your system will be running at the slower speed RAM. So when you mix PC66 and PC133, the system will be running at 66, and not 133.

 

[LemonHead]

Slower Ram speed is fine with me cause it's only a PII300; I'm more concerned with stability. He's running Win 98 SE and it seems ok for a while then locks up randomly. Could be sitting idle and it freeses or using work, AO-HELL...Uh...I mean AOL

It bagan life with Win 95, but I really can't think that the system would have a problem with 98? Don't know if maybe there are some BIOS settings that I have to tweak?

 

[sohcrates]

mixing RAM speeds is FINE....the issue here is RAM compatibility with a proprietary DELL mobo...and aftermarket RAM + DELL mobo's do not always play nice.

 

[Rand]

Mixing different speed DIMM's is perfectly fine, PC100,PC66,PC133... they'll all go together fine. Obviously you'll be limited to the speed of the slower DIMM of course.

The particular DIMM's might not like each other but it's unrelated to rated speed. You can usually mix and match all you want.
Proprietary Dell mobos sometimes don't like to be used with aftermarket RAM though.