I just picked up a 512MB DDR-DIMM. My computer has four memory slots and came with two 256MB DIMM's in slots 1 and 3. My question is how should I install the new memory. I am thinking of two methods, 512MB in slot one and the 256MB's in slots three and four or 256MB's in slots one and two and the 512MB in slot 3. Opinions please, thanks.

There really is no set way of doing this...The reason is is the fact that sometimes when you add new memory, it might not work correctly (for whatever reason :rolleyes: ) in the slot you put it in. So, one of the first things you do to remedy that situation is switch the memory from the slot where it doesnt seem to work the way it should to another free slot. That being said, try it either way. If the first way works and the memory count is ok, leave it alone. Otherwise, try another slot.

If your old chips were installed in slots 1 and 3 you might want to consider if the older RAM installed was Dual Channel. In that case you will want to put your new RAM in slot 2 and leave the other 2 alone. For the dual channel feature to work they need to be in corresponding slots on the 2 different banks. 2 banks with 2 slots, 1 and 3 correspond, and 2 and 4.

Daniel

Make sure that you are free of static electricty before you handle the memory chips and/or touch anything inside of the computer. Do not work on carpet and after you open the computer box, touch the chassis.

You need to figure out if your mother board is interleaved. If so the memory has to be in pairs 1,3 and 2,4. I don't see any advantage to which slots you populate since they have to be the same size and speed per pair. It just interleaves across each pair for performance. If the mother board isn't interleaved then you can put them in any order and make sure your board can register the total amount of ram. If not you will boot up and not see the total mb/gigbyte of ram your expecting.