Computer IT question, Memory Options

[spunky393]

Hey everybody,

I'm a really old member, havn't been around for a long time, but I thought about this site when I had this question.

Can anybody give me an extremely detailed explanation of memory?

What I really want to know is what happens if you install more memory than what your computer says it can handle? Does it screw up the bios or what?

How can I over-clock it if that'll fix it, etc. etc.

Thanks for the help.

[Bitter]

if you put in more than the maximum the motherboard/bios can address or handle either....
a. it will not POST or boot
b. only the maximum amount will be recognized

overclocking wont 'fix' anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overclocking

[spunky393]

ok, thanks for letting me know. Is there any bios work i can do for it to recognize, or is this all jsut a lost cause?

[Supersprynt]

Pretty sure you'd need a new mobo.

[Galcobar]

It depends on what you mean by more memory.

It also depends on your operating system.

Your motherboard dictates how much total memory/RAM your computer can accommodate (4-8GB is typical, enthusiast systems go up to 16GB), how fast that RAM can be (PC-3200) and type of RAM (e.g. you cannot put DDR3 in a board which can handle DDR2 only).

The max amount of RAM your motherboard may accommodate cannot be changed by your BIOS (well, theoretically possible). It's difficult to overclock your system to accommodate higher-speed RAM than the motherboard is designed for -- most people overclock the best RAM the board can accommodate normally.

However, most people never come close to the maximum RAM their system can handle because of the operating system. A 32-bit operating system, which 95% of people use, allows a maximum of 4GB of system memory. This includes RAM as well as any memory on other devices, such as a video card. Installing more memory onto your system than the operating system can handle, through any means, will be wasted -- the operating system will simply ignore the excess.

To get more than four gigs of memory, you'd need to move up to a 64-bit OS; they can accommodate any amount of memory a current computer might carry.

[Bitter]

32bit windows allows a max of 3GB's

[creis]

^ x84 OS supports 4gb max. x64 supports up to 128gb.

[k-weaver]

^ I thought 32 bit was 3.3?

Installing too much ram in your computer prolly won't hurt anything but it would be waisted because you wouldn't gain anything. For example, if your computer supports 2gb max and you put in 4gb, everything will probably still work but only 2gb will be recognized. Same for the speed. If your board supports up to lets say DDR2 667MHz and you put in DDR2 800MHz, it will most likely fall back to 667MHz. Again this would be pointless....

[tomazws]

You can definitely overclock your memory speed with BIOS settings, but there is definitely NO way for us average people to make a mobo recognize memory size more than what the board is specified.

[Sinyk]

^ I thought 32 bit was 3.3?

Installing too much ram in your computer prolly won't hurt anything but it would be waisted because you wouldn't gain anything. For example, if your computer supports 2gb max and you put in 4gb, everything will probably still work but only 2gb will be recognized. Same for the speed. If your board supports up to lets say DDR2 667MHz and you put in DDR2 800MHz, it will most likely fall back to 667MHz. Again this would be pointless....

Not most likely, it will. RAM is backwards compatible meaning if your computer is old and only supports PC-2100 DDR ram (266 MHz) but all you can buy is PC-3200 RAM (400 MHz), you are ok as the PC-3200 RAM will run at the speed of the DDR-2100 RAM, BUT if your system is meant to run at PC-3200 speeds and you plug in PC-2100 RAM, your computer will probably crash and the only way you would be able to run your computer with any bit of stability would be to under clock your computer's front side bus to match the PC-2100 speed.

It's difficult to overclock your system to accommodate higher-speed RAM than the motherboard is designed for -- most people overclock the best RAM the board can accommodate normally.

If you are overclocking, you want to buy RAM that supports higher speeds so that you can overclock and maintain stability and also maintain tighter RAM timings. If you purchase memory that is rated for what your computer runs stock and you overclock it, you will probably notice much smaller gains and greater instability sooner resulting in a lower net overclock.