i am going to buy memory for my computer what does pc4200 mean and the other pc number mean do i have to worry

Question

my mother board says it requires ddr2 for memory i just need to know if i have to worry about the pc3200, pc4200, pc5400 so on and so on.

Answer 1

Hello; PC4200 is the speed at wich your computers' RAM functions at... since they've changed to this naming convention, I'm unsure what the corresponding speed (generally measured in Mhz, but soon to be Ghz) is. The older generation RAM, named PC-100 & PC-133 Ran at 100 & 133 Mhz, respectively. As with the CPUs, it's now misleading to judge a RAM stick, or CPU by its' name.

Generallly, any RAM that takes the DDR2 184 pin configuration would work in your computer, but using a slower RAM (say, PC3700, or less) may fry the slower RAM, (or at the best, it would only run at it's max speed, causing your existing RAM to slow down to the slower RAMs speed). Using faster RAM however, (such as PC4300), will not affect your system in the least, but the RAM will not operate at that speed, rather the speed of the slower RAM that's already installed, which you've indicated is PC4200

So, in a nutshell; PC4200 RAM or higher is good; less than that is NOT good! so, but you should be able to get pc4200 RAM, it's pretty standard in today's computers.

If you'd like to know more about your computer; go to the mfgrs website, and check out your systems' specification... if there's anything there you don't understand, try going to www.howstuffworks.com and see if you can't look it up, that's a great site to learn technical things, in simple language! Also, check out www.tomshardware.com

If you want to pay full price for your RAM, go to Walmart, Bestbuy, Circuit City, etc... also if you need it NOW! If you can wait a week, try using www.pricewatch.com; they'll give you the cheapest stores, including shipping... and, they rate the stores according to customer satisfaction, reliability, etc.

I hope this helped!
Marcos

Answer 2

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RE:
i am going to buy memory for my computer what does pc4200 mean and the other pc number mean do i have to worry
my mother board says it requires ddr2 for memory i just need to know if i have to worry about the pc3200, pc4200, pc5400 so on and so on.

Answer 3

Pc4200 Memory

Answer 4

Buy what your computer calls for. Best Buy can look it up. Just have your computer brand and model number. Also, you can check here;
http://www.memorygiant.com/
This should give you an idea of what you need.
As mentioned it have to do with speed. Say yours use PC3200 and you buy PC4200. Many are backwards compatible on the speed, but, it best to buy what your computer need. Unless it gave to you.

Answer 5

You say any computer of late can handle any memory. Not on my mobo. My mobo is 6 years old. it uses ddr memory it accepts up to 333mghz. I put 400 mghz into it, it showed it was in there but acted like it had a virus. I took it back out and it was back to normal. So different mobos take different memory and I always considered pc3200 to be the biggest ddr ram not ddr2 ram. The smallest I've seen to date for ddr2 is 533mghz pc4200. The largest 800 mghz. Also if you want cheaper but better memory, go to http://www.tigerdirect.com

Answer 6

The higher the number, the faster the RAM.

PC3200 = DDR2-400
PC4200 = DDR2-533
PC5300 = DDR2-667
PC6400 = DDR2-800

Just make sure that the RAM you buy is compatible with your motherboard.