Computer IT question, Memory Options

[spunky393]

Hey everybody,

I'm a really old member, havn't been around for a long time, but I thought about this site when I had this question.

Can anybody give me an extremely detailed explanation of memory?

What I really want to know is what happens if you install more memory than what your computer says it can handle? Does it screw up the bios or what?

How can I over-clock it if that'll fix it, etc. etc.

Thanks for the help.

[k-weaver]

^ I thought 32 bit was 3.3?

Installing too much ram in your computer prolly won't hurt anything but it would be waisted because you wouldn't gain anything. For example, if your computer supports 2gb max and you put in 4gb, everything will probably still work but only 2gb will be recognized. Same for the speed. If your board supports up to lets say DDR2 667MHz and you put in DDR2 800MHz, it will most likely fall back to 667MHz. Again this would be pointless....

[Sinyk]

^ I thought 32 bit was 3.3?

Installing too much ram in your computer prolly won't hurt anything but it would be waisted because you wouldn't gain anything. For example, if your computer supports 2gb max and you put in 4gb, everything will probably still work but only 2gb will be recognized. Same for the speed. If your board supports up to lets say DDR2 667MHz and you put in DDR2 800MHz, it will most likely fall back to 667MHz. Again this would be pointless....

Not most likely, it will. RAM is backwards compatible meaning if your computer is old and only supports PC-2100 DDR ram (266 MHz) but all you can buy is PC-3200 RAM (400 MHz), you are ok as the PC-3200 RAM will run at the speed of the DDR-2100 RAM, BUT if your system is meant to run at PC-3200 speeds and you plug in PC-2100 RAM, your computer will probably crash and the only way you would be able to run your computer with any bit of stability would be to under clock your computer's front side bus to match the PC-2100 speed.

It's difficult to overclock your system to accommodate higher-speed RAM than the motherboard is designed for -- most people overclock the best RAM the board can accommodate normally.

If you are overclocking, you want to buy RAM that supports higher speeds so that you can overclock and maintain stability and also maintain tighter RAM timings. If you purchase memory that is rated for what your computer runs stock and you overclock it, you will probably notice much smaller gains and greater instability sooner resulting in a lower net overclock.