BleepingComputer.com: Ram? 2gb 667mhz Vs. 3gb 533mhz

I've got a Intel Pentium D 2.80GHz on a Sony/Intel board, Windows XP Media Center Edition. Is there any performance difference between running just my new RAM, 1GB Pair PNY PC2-5300 and running the new RAM plus the OEM, 512MB Pair PC2-4200. Basically is 2GB @ 667MHz better than 3GB @ 533MHz ?

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to the more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

This post has been edited by Animal: 27 June 2007 - 03:57 PM

SRacer2000, on Jun 28 2007, 12:01 AM, said:

The performance of your system depends on how much of the OS you can get outta your HDD and into your RAM to reduce the latency taken to prefetch from Virtual Memory..so in this case a few more MHz on your RAM will surely not be better than having a whole 1GB more of your OS on your RAM..so if I were you I would keep the 3GB@533

I have had issues on MSI and Intel boards trying to run DDR2 in dual channel mode with unmatched sets of RAM (can't run 3 gB because of this - had to go with 4 gB in order to make it work).

This didn't seem topic-worthy, but for 4 dual-channel slots, I am buying 2GB of 800 and already have 1GB (2x512) of 533 or 667. So, I have two questions. Can I have two different RAM speeds if I have four dual-channel slots? How do I place the matched sets of RAM, side-by-side or in a pattern. The thing that brought this up is I looked inside and there was a slot with 512, an empty one, and then another set of 512 and an empty one and I was told they are running dual-channel. So basically, is there compatibility and what is the placement if yes.

Ryan3000:
Side-by-side is how it works. I have two different brand/speed sticks and they run dual-channel fine.

SRacer2000:
The bigger the better. 3GB FTW

Regards,
TheYoda