Unbalanced RAM sticks

[Jeremy]

My mother-in-law-to-be has one of our old Dell systems that originally had a low amount of RAM (128 MB) in it. She now uses AutoCAD 2007 in her work which requires a minimum of 512MB. I told her to take it to a PC shop and get the tech to put in 2x512MB. Well, he just put in one 1GB stick along with the 128MB.

Is it a bad thing to have unbalanced RAM sticks like that? If so, do the cons in this situation warrant the effort and time to take it to back and get them replaced with 2x512MB?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[ripken204]

if her setup supports dual channel then 2x512 would be the way to go. so i would do it.

[jcarle]

if her setup supports dual channel then 2x512 would be the way to go. so i would do it.

Do you ever do research before you post or do you just say anything at all?

If the computer is an old Dell system that originally came with 128MB of ram, there's a hell of a good chance that it's a Pentium III or an old AMD. Dual Channel didn't even exist back then. Not to mention that the dual channel architecture only applies to DDR and DDR2 memory. Oh and by the way, you still didn't answer his original question.

Is it a bad thing to have unbalanced RAM sticks like that? If so, do the cons in this situation warrant the effort and time to take it to back and get them replaced with 2x512MB?

If we are indeed talking about SDRAM, the size difference is not usually an issue. The different memory banks get attributed to a general memory addressing pool and the OS takes care of the rest. What WILL make a difference is if the 1GB stick is, for example, 133MHz SDRAM and the 128MB is 100MHz, then both sticks will run at 100MHz, therefore reducing performance. A difference in timings can also, at times, cause certain issues.

[nmX.Memnoch]

If it's an older PIII system (and both jcarle and myself are assuming so since it only came with 128MB RAM) then it probably doesn't support a single 1GB stick. Depending on the chipset the system may only support up to 512MB, and at that it would only support it in 2 x 256MB sticks. The Intel i810 and i815 chipsets are limited to just 512MB total RAM (boneheaded move on Intel's part at the time).

Do you have the model number of the Dell?

[jcarle]

If it's an older PIII system (and both jcarle and myself are assuming so since it only came with 128MB RAM) then it probably doesn't support a single 1GB stick. Depending on the chipset the system may only support up to 512MB, and at that it would only support it in 2 x 256MB sticks. The Intel i810 and i815 chipsets are limited to just 512MB total RAM (boneheaded move on Intel's part at the time).

There quite a few older motherboards that did have the 512MB limitation, but this limitation was per bank. So a 1GB stick may work if it's configured as 512MB per bank. It was fairly common to see motherboard with a 512MB limit per bank and a 4GB limit total. The bank configurations and limits often caused a lot of grief when trying to upgrade SDRAM.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Being that this is an older Dell system it was Intel only...this also included only using Intel chipsets. They didn't start using other chipsets on their Intel systems until the second or third generation XPS gaming machines. The i810 and i815 chipsets are limited to a total maximum of 512MB RAM.

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matur...ht_compare&

The problem with the i815 series is that the motherboard usually came with 3 DIMM slots. The only way you could fill them was with either three single-sided DIMMs or one double-sided and two single-sided. But the max is still only 512MB.

Now if it's a really old PIII system and has a 440BX chipset then he'll probably be able to get up to 768MB. The 440BX supports up to 1GB (4 x 256MB), however Dell only included 3 DIMM slots in their 440BX based systems so you could only put in up to 3 x 256MB for a total of 768MB.

[RJARRRPCGP]

There's also the following issue:

If you use more than one stick of RAM, the OS may get corrupted. There's a chance of a BSOD.

Also, Windows may silently get corrupted, it's fine, then when you turn on the PC the next day, you get a crash and can't use Windows! The symptom may be a BSOD or it reboots over and over again at the Windows logo.

Edited May 7, 2007 by RJARRRPCGP

[Stead]

There's also the following issue:

If you use more than one stick of RAM, the OS may get corrupted. There's a chance of a BSOD.

Also, Windows may silently get corrupted, it's fine, then when you turn on the PC the next day, you get a crash and can't use Windows! The symptom may be a BSOD or it reboots over and over again at the Windows logo.

??????????????????????

a system can crash because it has more than one stick of ram in it!??!?!

[gamehead200]

There's also the following issue:

If you use more than one stick of RAM, the OS may get corrupted. There's a chance of a BSOD.

Also, Windows may silently get corrupted, it's fine, then when you turn on the PC the next day, you get a crash and can't use Windows! The symptom may be a BSOD or it reboots over and over again at the Windows logo.

Ummmm... Corruption of the OS can be caused by MANY other things; the same goes for BSODs. If one of the two sticks is faulty, then yes, there is a chance of getting a BSOD. However, even if you only have one stick of RAM in your computer, there is still a chance of getting a BSOD if the RAM is faulty. I have four sticks of RAM in my home server (each one being 128MB) and it has never crashed on me; not a single BSOD. Motherboard manufacturers put more than one RAM slot on their boards for a reason: to upgrade! Where are you getting this information from?

[jcarle]

I built a 386 once with 12 sticks of ram. There were 4 on the motherboard and 8 on an expansion board and I never had an issue.

[nmX.Memnoch]

There's also the following issue:

If you use more than one stick of RAM, the OS may get corrupted. There's a chance of a BSOD.

Wow...that's all I can say...just Wow.

[Jeremy]

Whoa, I didn't notice so many had replied until now. I have to clarify, it came originally with 128MB but we had 2x512 in it when my fiancee used it, but when we gave it to her mother, we took out the 2x512 to save for another system.

Anyway, I know that if one stick is, say, 133 MHz and the other is 100 MHz that they both will run at the lower speed. I just wanted to know, in general, if unbalanced RAM (1GB and 128MB) would cause an issue. She says the system is like super-fast compared to before so maybe that's all that matters, eh?

[nmX.Memnoch]

What is the model of that Dell?

[Jeremy]

What is the model of that Dell?

I honestly don't remember. Next time I'm out there I'll use WinAudit or Everest to do up a report of the specs and specifics and answer your question then. Cheers.

[jcarle]

The only thing that may conflict is the timings, but other then that... everything will probably be well.