Will PC2 5400 RAM work with...?

Question

I was looking at computers being sold with my motherboard, and they use PC 4200 RAM I have PC2 5400 RAM, will it be able to work?

So it uses older RAM while I have newer RAM? What would happen if I plugged it in and turned it on?

Also, will it run on a motherboard that supports PC2 3200?

Answer 1

PC2 memory is known on the market as DDR2 RAM (240pin). If your motherboard does support DDR2 RAM then you have to check the specifications in the manual on what (speeds) are supported. Some lower end motherboards will only run one or two supported speeds. Example...DDR2 400MHz (PC2-3200), DDR2 533MHz (PC2-4200).

If your board supports speeds higher than I listed,..up to DDR2 1066MHz (PC2-8500) you will have no problem getting "full speed" out of your PC2-5400 chip. If the board only supports up to PC2-4200 then it will slow down the faster chip to accomodate the motherboard, however, isn't that situation a litte redundant? If you are trying to get all you can out of the system and are using memory that doesn't utilize its full potential,..then you should change your motherboard to accomodate the memory. Otherwise you are just wasting money in my opinion.

Answer 2

Some older motherboards support only PC2 3200 & PC2 4200. Newer ones support PC2 4200, 5400 and sometimes up to PC2 6400. If you use your PC2 5400 RAM on these newer ones, it will work at 667Mhz. However, if you use it on the older boards, BIOS will automatically run it at 533Mhz ( the speed of PC2 4200).

Answer 3

If you have PC2 RAM it means you got the DDR2 type of RAM.
Regular DDR RAM, such as the one you described above, will not work on your motherboard.