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PC3200 Or PC2100 RAM FOR A G4/ Dual 867?

S

SPACEKID

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 25, 2004
24
0
Hiya,

Last week I bought 256MB of Crucial PC2100 RAM.

My G4 Dual 867 already had 256MB of PC2100 Ram in it...


512MB is not enough lol.


I was gonna buy another 512MB of PC2100...

But apparantly I can use PC3200 Ram with this MAC??? Is that true? If so id have to sell the remaining ram and just use 3200 together right? As it will run at 2100 speeds if I keep it in the system with the PC2100 am I right?

Question is,

Do I sell the PC2100 ram, and buy 512MB of PC3200 RAM, then another 512MB at a later date.
Is there a big/noticeable speed difference?

OR

Do I keep the PC2100 Ram, and just buy that extra 512MB of PC2100 and have 1GB total ram...


Help is appreciated :)
 
According to crucial your computer uses PC2100 DDR RAM but the other speeds are also acceptable. But it won't run any faster than PC2100 would whether you put fast RAM in it or not. The speed of the RAM is irrelevant so long as it meets the minimum standard

I don't think it matters too much if you mix memory but as PC2100 is cheaper than PC3200 I'd stick with all-PC2100.
 
caveman_uk said:
According to crucial your computer uses PC2100 DDR RAM but the other speeds are also acceptable. But it won't run any faster than PC2100 would whether you put fast RAM in it or not. The speed of the RAM is irrelevant so long as it meets the minimum standard

I don't think it matters too much if you mix memory but as PC2100 is cheaper than PC3200 I'd stick with all-PC2100.
Click to expand...
-----


So there is no case where you would benefit from RAM faster then the recommended PC2100 DDR RAM?
 
SPACEKID said:
Hiya,

Last week I bought 256MB of Crucial PC2100 RAM.

My G4 Dual 867 already had 256MB of PC2100 Ram in it...


512MB is not enough lol.


I was gonna buy another 512MB of PC2100...

But apparantly I can use PC3200 Ram with this MAC??? Is that true? If so id have to sell the remaining ram and just use 3200 together right? As it will run at 2100 speeds if I keep it in the system with the PC2100 am I right?

Question is,

Do I sell the PC2100 ram, and buy 512MB of PC3200 RAM, then another 512MB at a later date.
Is there a big/noticeable speed difference?

OR

Do I keep the PC2100 Ram, and just buy that extra 512MB of PC2100 and have 1GB total ram...


Help is appreciated :)
Click to expand...


If the RAM is not in the Apple spec, you may encounter kernel panics:

http://www.info.apple.com/support/applespec.html
 
Macs are not PCs, you will not get any benefits or improvements from putting in faster memory. The BIOS in Macs are hard coded to run RAM at a specified CAS and FSB, so there's really not point to put in PC3200 when PC2100 is the default. Crucial's memory selector's the perfect indicator on what your Mac will accept, anything else is a waste of money.
 
FuzzyBallz said:
Macs are not PCs, you will not get any benefits or improvements from putting in faster memory. The BIOS in Macs are hard coded to run RAM at a specified CAS and FSB, so there's really not point to put in PC3200 when PC2100 is the default. Crucial's memory selector's the perfect indicator on what your Mac will accept, anything else is a waste of money.
Click to expand...

what's the reason for that? Just curious why macs do it differently?
 
Macs do it differently for many reasons. PCs for one need a wider bus because their processor has so much more overhead. The G5 though is an interesting exception, and it should be interesting to see how newer RAM ends up working with a G5, since the newest G5s have a 1 Ghz bus.

Also memory management on the Mac is much tighter and graphics is handled more on the motherboard and the videocard, than through software alone. Regardless, if you are in need of speed in Mac OS X, check these optimization tips:

http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html
 
There is no difference in how mac an pcs accept ram. The thing is that a motherboard has a max ram speed it can hit. Apple usually maxes this out. Pc motherboard don't because can usually handle fater ram but it is not cost effective for the average user to get such high clock speeds.

You can put higher ram than what is suggested in your pc or mac, but it will only run at:
1) the max speed that the board can handle.
2) the speed of the slowest ram currently on the board.
 
rsf1977 said:
-----


So there is no case where you would benefit from RAM faster then the recommended PC2100 DDR RAM?
Click to expand...
No, PC2100 actually relates to the speed of the memory bus that the memory will run on. It a mac is spec'd to run at PC2100 it will only run at PC2100. Putting faster memory in won't change that. I believe the bus speed is hard wired by resistors on the motherboard so unless you fancy taking a soldering iron to your mac you're stuck at the speed Apple set it at.

The MDD Powermac G4's will take a maximum of 2GB in four sticks of 512MB
 
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