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    Do DIMM's have to be matched?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by lunadesign, Mar 8, 2008.

  1. lunadesign

    lunadesign Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm looking to buy a Latitude D830 but the memory is much cheaper at Crucial. I know I can buy a D830 with a single 2GB DIMM. Can I pair that with a Crucial 2GB DIMM of the same type or is it better to throw away the Dell DIMM(s) and buy a Crucial 2x2GB DIMM kit?
     
    lunadesign, Mar 8, 2008
    #1
  2. admlam

    admlam Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    No. You can mix and match them.
     
    admlam, Mar 8, 2008
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  3. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    YES YOU CAN! It will work perfect even if they are different.
     
    nizzy1115, Mar 8, 2008
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  4. jeffmd

    jeffmd Notebook Evangelist

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    no, it won't allways work perfect. Memory has timing settings that do need to be matched. If you buy one persons ram and another with the same timings, then that is fine. But if you have a quality fast ram and a cheapie ram at different timings, the computer will throttle back the FSB to a speed where the timings match.

    An example is what happened to my pc when I needed to return the bad ram I got for it. It was OCZ DDR2 memory rated to run at 1066mhz (Its "standard" setting is 800mhz). While I was doing the rma, I bought a gig of cheapo ram just to beable to use the computer, it ran at 600mhz. When I got the new sticks of OCZ back, I wanted to see if I could combine them all. Unfortunatly the fall back speed of the bus where both sticks had matching speeds was 333mhz, so that didn't happen.
     
    jeffmd, Mar 9, 2008
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  5. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Second YES YOU CAN!

    Like stated, it will downclock to the lower of the two modules.
     
    Lithus, Mar 9, 2008
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  6. -Recoil-

    -Recoil- Notebook Consultant

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    If its for a laptop it will be SODIMM not DIMM; DIMM is for desktops.

    As other have said, you can mix, however if you want to run in dual channel, then you must buy a pair that are the same speed (e.g 667mhz) and the same capacity (e.g. 1GB).
     
    -Recoil-, Mar 9, 2008
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  7. darthsat

    darthsat Notebook Deity

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    Yes, and it isn't too difficult to find another 2GB module that runs at the same speed as another one.
     
    darthsat, Mar 9, 2008
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