Hey there! I have a dual-processor Pentium 3 system... and with 256MB PC133 there, Apacer brand. So could I mix RAM sticks of different brands, all like 256MB Kingston.. 256MB brandless... Anyone tried that ... and any complications?
I don't know about any problems with older systems, but I mix RAM all the time and it works fine. Just make sure it has the same speed and timings.
If the RAM is different speed, always set at the BIOS the slowest of the two. It works in my ancient desktop ..
Well I have always used mixed modules of different speeds and makes. It's not an issue unless you use the speed of the fastest modules, instead of the highest speed supported by ALL modules.
That depends. Some BIOS would just default to automatic DRAM timings, leaving you to set the RAM clock speed. But yeah, many BIOS now automatically detects and uses the highest common clock speed.
If you place the slowest stick in slot 1 of the memory the bios will detect that and set all memory to that speed automatically.
I used to mix and match ram all the time with older systems and rarely ran into problems. Some of todays PCs can be a little picky though.
A bit late but never had an issue mixing ram either although as Rraven mentioned I always installed the slowest stick in slot 1