Question about RAM
 

If you have multiple sticks of RAM, will there be any problems if the sticks are diffrent sizes?

It depends on the way the motherboard requires it. Some have only required a single memory module like dimms one at a time and could mix size. But the order may have to be a certain way and also one may be oin slot 0 and the other would be in slot 2 in order to see them both. But if the system requires pairs then they must be the same size and perfer all to be the same speed. What ever the slowest one is is the one that all will be at.

Brian

okkkay....

Perhaps I should be asking how to test to see if its working, memtest86 sees the correct amount of RAM, dose that mean its all ok?

Btw there's only two ram slots

I would say you should be able to add one at a time since only two slots present. Also if memtest shows the correct amount it should work fine. Is there a problem?

Brian

No problems :) I'd heard that two diffrent sized ram sticks are bad so I asked.

Like Brian was saying, it's dependent upon your motherboard. And that really comes down to it's chipsets and how the motherboard manufacturer made use of them. Motherboard manufacturers tend to add their own spice to an implmentation. The best way to find out the ramifications of memory with your motherboard, is to refer to it's manual, that's providing that your motherboard came with a decent one to begin with. Also, be sure to check their web site to see if there is an any corrections to the manual, as well as their FAQs, and knowlegebase. There really is no simple end all be all advice to check specific sources of info since different manufacturers have their own ways of doing things. If you're real unlucky, the manufacturer of your motherboard doesn't package a manual that's worth a crap with the motherboard nor have any worthwhile information on their site. But I would say, that if that's the case, that may be a good sign to avoid patronizing their products. The idea is that if you want a good and accurate assessment, then it's a matter of trying to find as much information as you can from many different sources. Of course, as you research something, sometimes it leads to the dilemma that there can be conflicting information from different sources.

The person that told you that different sized rams are bad, probably doesn't realize that it's dependant upon the design of the motherboard (what he's saying may hold true in certain cases, but not in others). For instance, I used to have an old system that would take almost any wacky ram configuration I would throw at it and run like champ. Whereas, there were other systems, from around the same time, that were picky as hell about ram in about every way you can and can't imagine.

It's really suffices it to say that it's dependant upon the motherboard though. If a person wanted to get really pedantic about it though, the more correct answer would be, 'that's it dependant upon the motherboard's northbridge chipset, the system's bios, and any tweaks the motheboard manufacturer has made'.

Your next question may be, 'what the hell are chipsets and what is a northbridge?'. The answer to that is, that these days, a chipset is technically a chip. It's called a chipset because a very long time ago it used to take a set of chips to provide the functionality that a single one can provide now. These chipset do things like control the interaction between memory and peripherals etc. In a sense, this is sort of how electronic evolve -- the functions of many ICs being integrated into fewer and ICs, which in turn helps bring down the manufacturing costs. This leads to functionality evolving and cost dropping in order of magnitude.

My recommendation would be to use identical RAM sticks (same manufacturer, same speed, same size, same everything) but if you have 2 different sized sticks, say a 512 stick and a 256 stick, you should be able to use both of them without problems. The caveat is that they should be the same speed (ie, DDR 333 or whatever). If you mix and match different speed RAM, it can cause system instability

It is dependent on the chipset or a better answer the memory controller. If the memory controller does dual-channel, you need even pairs that are equal in capacity and be the same brand. The speed of the memory can be equal or be greater than the controller can handle. If you use DDR-266 memory modules and the bus have to be 333 MHz, the memory module will not handle the speed very well. Single channel memory controllers can handle different memory modules that are different capacities, but keep note about the bus speed. All memory controllers will use the slowest speed of the slowest memory module, but only if the memory module has an EEPROM chip. Most cheap memory modules do not have this and some popular memory brands may not have it also. To be sure the computer is stable, it is best to manually set the speed of the memory.

I have two 1 GB chips and a 256MB chip on my MSI KT3Ultra2. Works just fine. Stop agonizing about "whether" it will work, and just try it. If you have more than 1GB, you'll probably have to turn on HIGHMEM or whatever it's called in your distro.

It would be a disaster if I put it on my P4C800.
I experienced a total lost of data on my Sata when I missmatch the pair.

So will ya be carefull in RAM.