I have 2 sets of Value Select RAM from Corsair.. both PC3200, both 2 184-pin DDR DIMM's. But one has VS512MB400C3 and the other VS5125MB400 What does that C3 means and will it force me to not put them all in? Thnx
Means its cas3. The other stuff is likely to be cas2.5. Should work fine together, might both run at cas2.5, else run cas3
If you have a stick of PC3200 CL3 and a stick of PC3200 CL2.5 bit will have to run at CL3 (ie the slowest speed) in order to avoid running anything out of spec. Just the same as a stick of PC2700 with a stick of PC3200 will mean both running at PC2700. That's not to say you can't force the CL3 stick to run at CL2.5 speed but doing this is o/c'ing your RAM (similar to running PC2700 at PC3200 speed) and if you aren't precisely 100% stable and error free all kinds of nasty things can happen. You must be 100% certain your RAM is stable at the increased speed and/or timings before using it. I'd suggest MemTest86+ (plus), Prime95's Torture Test, WinRAR, Sandra, 3Dmark2001/03, SuperPi 1MB and Rightmark Memory Analyzer.
