What RAM should be first?

Question

Currently I have 1 RAM stick installed in my computer (the motherboard supports 4 sticks of DDR memory, see my specs here at my profile info) Kingston:

1 GB
200 MHz
PC3200

I've bought another stick that I could find in any possible computer center.
It is Hynix:

256 MB
333 MHz
PC2700

So what RAM should be first, faster or bigger?
My guess is that faster RAM should be first.

Answer 1

If I understand what you're asking correctly, then there's no difference which module is "first". In fact the distinction itself is irrelevant unless you're trying to make a dual-channel system, which is in this case impossible.

Anyway, the faster module will slow down to match the speed of slower module so both will work at the same speed.

Answer 2

If you have four memory slots in the typical [][] [][] configuration, just don't use two slots next to each other. Otherwise, it doesn't matter.

The best you can do is make sure the two sticks are on two different memory channels. At least that will save you one command state per burst with typical memory controllers -- it takes an extra command state to select which stick the access is going to if both sticks are on the same channel.

Answer 3

Depending on your motherboard it might be safer to put the slower module first. On one older system I had PC133 + 3xPC100 memory installed and the BIOS set the memory speed to 133MHz which ofcourse caused problems. In any case, running memtest86 for a night after adding the memory will tell you if the configuration you choose will work or not.

Answer 4

Just buy another 1 GB module and insert it to paired slot to double performance (i.e. run memory chips in "Dual Channel" mode).