Couple of general memory questions

[jdbolick]

Apologies if these or similar questions have been asked recently. I tried to do a quick perusal but can't look at everything and these shouldn't be hard to answer for someone moderately knowledgeable. Anyway, I'm having some memory issues given that I only have 256 of 2100. My other stick burned out quite a while back and it seems to me that the addition of some recent apps (especially recording from a TV tuner card) seems to be overly taxing that solitary stick. I was holding off on buying new memory for a while longer because I expected to do a fairly substantial upgrade as soon as I got more stable income (taking longer than expected unfortunately), but I think I may need to do so now. Anyway...


#1) My board is fairly old (Asus A7V266), so I'm wondering if I will be able to buy the memory I intend for my eventual upgrade and use it with that. If it's just a matter of the memory not being utilized at anything close to its optimal speed, I'd be fine with that, I just want to know if it will work at all. (I'd be open to buying more 2100 but it seems like a waste given that 2100 still isn't dirt cheap and hopefully I won't be waiting forever to finish upgrading.) If I can't or at least shouldn't use it with the old mobo, I'll either have to bite the bullet and get the full package, waste money on a temporary 2100 solution, or continue struggling to rip decent performance out of 256.


#2) When I do look at new memory, would I be better off getting 512 of some top notch memory or a gig of something mediocre (meaning speed, not brand)? Since money is an object I have been planning on a 754 64 system (thought I'd splurge on the motherboard, though) and have been obsessed with what AT said about OCZ's EB memory on 64 systems. Since high speed EB is more expensive (not to mention hard to find), I was thinking a gig of something lower (maybe like 3200 EL). So far I've heard differing opinions, some saying you can never have too much memory while others placing more emphasis on the speed than the usefulness of the extra 512.


Any information is appreciated. If it makes a difference I'm running XP with a 1.35 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP right now.

 

[jdbolick]

I don't know whether to take the deafening silence as A) "The answer is in a million threads you idiot!" (in which case I've looked but I must be blind) or B) "Your question isn't sexy, go away!" Bleh. Seriously, I looked through the sticky thread and some of the other RAM threads but didn't see anything that would specifically answer my questions. Basically I'm just wondering:


#1) Will any 184 pin DIMM stick work on my motherboard? (understanding, at least I think so, that it would only run at the 2100 speed my board was designed to support)


And #2) When I finally do upgrade to a 64-based system would I be better off with something like 512MB of OCZ 3700 EB or 1 gig of economy (aka cheap/slow from a respectable brand) memory for about the same price (~$170)?


Any feedback is appreciated. I feel like these questions should be relatively easy to answer, which makes me feel more stupid for asking them but searching for the answers myself isn't getting me anywhere so far.

 

[Appledrop]

#1 yes

#2, yes


infact tat maybe confusing.. yesa u can use any speed ram, mobo will underclock it..

getting faster/ better but less ram is the better idea, since u can upgrade it later if needs be, and not be still lacking in speed

 

[jdbolick]

Originally posted by: Azzy64
getting faster/ better but less ram is the better idea, since u can upgrade it later if needs be, and not be still lacking in speed

Now I really do feel stupid for not considering that fact. Thanks for the response.