Is mixing ram ok?

I know this may seem like a dumb question, but I am after all a notebook novice- is it ok to mix ram?
I recently got my hands on an old notebook (compaq presario v2000) which has 256mb and would like to stick in a 512mb in the second bay. I read somewhere that you should stick to having the same amounts in each bay. Is this true? Anyone that could clarify would be great!

 

No its fine, i used to have 1X256 and 1X 1GB ....you will be fine In fact i have had 1X 256 and 1X512 in one of my older notebooks

Having 2 of the same amount is for dual channel, which really...wouldn't be a life and death problem lol! so don't worry about that

 

For the best performance, usually you'll want to have them both to be the same amount. But unlike olden times, it's not required to exchange RAM in pairs anymore. So, you can put in different amounts of RAM at your leasure, and as the poster above me said, it's not a life-or-death think. If the RAM chips have different latencies, I think the computer will automatically sync them to the lowest between the two, so that's another thing you don't have to worry about, although if you could get one with the same latency that would be the better course.

 

Yeah, just make sure that the ram are of the same type (PC 5300 or PC 2700 or whatever). If the speeds are different, the laptop will throttle down the bus speed to match the slower ram which might slow down the system. Otherwise, you should be ok.

 

The AMD-based Presario V2000's are single channel memory so it doesn't matter if the SODIMMs are of different sizes. I added a Crucial PC2700 512MB stick to the stock 256MB stick in mine. I'm not sure about the Intel-based V2000's, they might be dual channel but like the above posters said you won't take too big a hit with mismatched memory. It's always prudent to test your new configuration with MemTest86+.

 

it is fine to mix ram

 

Thanks for the advice guys

 

I've been dealing with p3 ram a fair bit, but I've just sort of been slapping it in... Now I've come to look at upgrading my laptop's.... I've read that my lap top supports only pc2100, though when I open it up, Dell has pc2700 in there anyway. Now pc2700 I can get a 1GB stick for $50 at cheapest, but with say 3200 or 5200 I can get for $25-$30... What happens if a higher speed ram is installed than what's apparently capable for the motherboard.... And that being said, pc___ is the speed isn't it?

 

I've been dealing with p3 ram a fair bit, but I've just sort of been slapping it in... Now I've come to look at upgrading my laptop's.... I've read that my lap top supports only pc2100, though when I open it up, Dell has pc2700 in there anyway. Now pc2700 I can get a 1GB stick for $50 at cheapest, but with say 3200 or 5200 I can get for $25-$30... What happens if a higher speed ram is installed than what's apparently capable for the motherboard.... And that being said, pc___ is the speed isn't it?

 

No I think You'll have to use either PC 2100 or 2700. But are 3200 and 5200 really compatible with your mobo? You should double check. Because I doubt a notebook that uses 2700/2100 can support the 3200 and the 5200...5200 is DDR2 anyway so it wont be compatible