What's the odds of me getting my PC 3200 to work on a PC 2700 board?

[cros]

Have a 3200 1gb chip, board only supports 2700.

Must be a solution!

[mjc]

The PCxxxx of a RAM stick is the maximum supported speed it will run at (leaving overclocking out of the equation). That means it should and usually does run at slower speeds without any problems...

[alex666]

Yeah, I ran a 512 stick of Corsair XMS 3200 ram on a kt-333 for a long time.

[cros]

Ya, I was nosing around ebay noticed that the 3200s list 2700 and even 2400 as acceptable speeds.

That's when I came up with the revelation that this 1gb stick that I have just may work on my 2700. This will sure make my day if it works. I'll have to pick up another stick.

[cros]

Ok, so here's a more advanced question: Should any DDR1 stick work in any bus speed? If so, what's the highest DDR1 ram speed I'll be able to use?

Also, will I be able to use the 3200 with the PCxxxx because both are underclocked to 2700?

Reason I ask is that since I'm stuck at 2700 for now, I may as well buy the highest speed of RAM that I can use since I may have a (slightly) upgraded system in the future. :)

Man if this 1gb stick works I'll have to ditch the pc 133 512. Good thing PC 133 is a top seller in this market.

[alex666]

I was a little confused by your question. Generally, fast memory, in this case, 3200, will work at a slower speed and hence on a mobo and with a cpu that might be rated only at 2700. You could even get 3500 ddr memory to work on a 2700 system. Two things you need to watch out for are (1) mixing memory, especially if that board is a dual-channel. Then you need a dual-channel set of ram. But even if it's not dual-channel, mixing different ram modules, especially if they are different speeds can be tricky. Then, (2), you need to make sure that the voltage requirements for the ram match your mobo. Some ram needs higher voltage than others, and some boards have a limited range. And here again is where mixing ram modules can be problematic if they each have different voltage requirements.

I don't know if this helps, hopefully it does.

marty

[cros]

worked like a charm. I can't believe I was sitting on 1.5gb of RAM that I coulda been using on my board. this PCChips board is really working out for me.