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I'm stuck with my old, but still working, HP Compaq dx7500 microtower. It still works flawesly, but I need more RAM for tasks such Audio production and VST hosting.
HP manual says the maximum supported RAM is 8GB. I think they've forgotten to say DDR2 max 16gb, cause I found the corresponding chipset Intel G45 and it says 8gb for DDR3 1066mhz and 16gb for DDR2 800mhz.
If I go for the 16 gb option, will I see any difference in performance. Will it even work?
Current conf.: CPU: Quad Core Intel core2 Q series 2.33 ghz RAM: 8gb Storage: SSD, 3gb sata speed MB: IPIEL LA rev 1.03, Intel G45 chipset, FSB speed 800-1333 mhz
Thanks for advice or a better idea.
user748359
Posted 2017-08-18T11:34:43.807
Reputation: 1
Typically motherboards didn't support both DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time there might have been 2 revisions of the same board that supported one or the other but it was very rare for a asinfle board to support both (both you couldn't use DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time). So you have to determine what your board actually supports then just purchase that sounds like the maximum is 8 GB in your case – Ramhound – 2017-08-18T11:43:38.743
As Ramhound says - either/or, not both. DDR3 will be faster & considerably cheaper - but it won't make an old G45 a whole lot better overall. An SSD would help a lot too, but ultimately it's getting about time for a new machine, especially for audio/VST, which wants lots of clock & lots of cores. – Tetsujin – 2017-08-18T11:47:52.177
Thanks. But do you think I can go up to 16gb if the chipset specs say? – user748359 – 2017-08-18T11:49:20.240
tbh, it might, it might not. Sometimes, if a machine is released on the cusp of a new technology - i.e. 8GB RAM chips, then the mfr won't include it as 'supported' but it might just work anyway. My machine was rated for 32GB. It currently contains 64. It will actually run 96 in triple channel... but not 128 in dual. Buy it from somewhere that will take no-quibble returns. – Tetsujin – 2017-08-18T11:52:22.097
I'd assumed it was a dual-slot machine... further research shows it probably isn't, it's DDR2 only. – Tetsujin – 2017-08-18T12:25:20.207
DDR2 800mhz VS DDR3 1066mhz: DDR@800MHz wins. Of course, it's all dependent on CPU power too, but on a theoretically identical system, the DDR2 will win. The perfect equivalent of DDR2 800MHz is a DDR3 @ 1600MHz. – Overmind – 2017-08-18T12:41:38.230