Memory conflicts?

Chuffy

I am looking to upgrade my PC over the next few months, however because I will be going from a Socket A to another chipset, it will mean another mobo, CPU and memory.
Crucial have got a cracking deal at the moment equivalent to 12% off (ex VAT) via Quidco plus £5 cashback if you buy performance memory.

My question is: assuming I buy the same sort of memory (DDR), can I run it on an old mobo/cpu without it causing an issue until I go the next step. Currently running pc2100, looking at pc3200.

TIA.

EasilyAggravated

there wouldnt be no problems. as long as it is ddr. the total amount of memory will run at the speed of the slowest. i dont know if its true or not but when i did this i was told to put the biggest in the first slot as it would cause conflicts.

superscaper

Usually, if it is the same format (eg DDR) then it would simply run at a slower rate but would still work. I've currently got 2GB PC3200 in my socket A motherboard and the cpu I have only supports up to 333MHz but it runs fine. I had a similar idea, upgrade memory now and "take it with me" when I upgrade the whole motherboard.

superscaper

EasilyAggravated wrote:

but when i did this i was told to put the biggest in the first slot as it would cause conflicts.

I think most manufacturers recommend putting the memory in size order.

To be absolutely sure for compatiblility though; you should be able to check for compatible memory for your specific motherboard on crucial's website.

Chuffy

Thanks guys.
Re: checking Crucial website, the memory I am interested in isn't listed for my mobo as it's a matched pair and as the mobo is Compaq with no BIOS tweaks available at all, performance memory is somewhat irrelevant.

This is the memory I am looking at - here:

It works out cheaper than normal memory.

superscaper

I'm guessing that your motherboard wouldn't take advantage of it being a matched pair, but it should still work, it'll probably treat it like two normal sticks of 512 and also run at a slower rate, but theoretically there's not reason for there to be any conflicts etc. Unfortunately it's one of those try it and see times unless someone has posted on the web a very specific problem realting to your exact circumstance.

Chuffy

Mobo wouldn't know what a matched pair was - getting on now, almost 4, hence the move towards a replacement (TBH, the extra memory will probably help no end). I thought it would just run as 2 512 sticks and underclock them, but I wanted backing up by the people who know.