Linux and RAM modules - compatibility question
 

I've done a bit of a "Frankenstein" job and put some bits and pieces together to setup a box running SLED 10. The question probably applies equally to any Linux. The SLED box has 256 Mb RAM, using two 128Mb RAM modules, one is PC100 and the other PC133. The system is working fine but is this detrimental in the long run ? Should I be using either PC100 only or PC133 only and not "mix and match."

Thanks,

Uncle-C

I don't believe there is anything detrimental in running your system like this. In this situation it really doesn't matter what OS you use because this is all determined at the hardware / BIOS level. What would typically happen in this situation is that the PC-133 RAM would automatically get clocked down to the PC-100 speed because it is the lowest common denominator.

Does that answer your question?

HTH

Mix and match.
 

Sadly there is no directly correct answer. depends on the mb. if the two ram chips are working ( assuming both auto set at pc100) may run fine. if you have any odd problems would be suspicious first. Have the same setup on my daughters computer and it runs fine. But I have seen some strange problems and issues from it. In short if it is working fine i would leave it, if you have a mysterious problem you only need to remove one chip to decide whether or not it is a ram problem.

If you wanted to test for sure, you could run memtest86 overnight. If there is a problem(malfunction) it would catch it.

Many thanks to everyone who kindly took time out to answer the question.
My initial worry was linked to Centinul's reply ( in reverse ). I thought that the PC100 may try to "clock up" to PC133 speed and cause a malfuntion Or that the two modules would try to run at their own respective speeds and cause a hardware clash of sorts. Unfortunatley, I have no kowledge of the technicalities behind the workings of RAM. The box seems to run SLED and XP with no problems yet. But will keep an eye out for anything.
Thanks again for the helpful advice.

Uncle.

You could download CPU-Z since you have XP as well. This should report the rate at which your RAM is running.