Ok a question about Vista (Power probably will be able to answer this the best)

[E6600]

Originally Posted by Darth Alec

How do I disable aero?

I can't find that damned option.

Disable Aero on Windows Vista :: the How-To Geek

[Darth Alec]

yay.

No more powerdrain.

[Gnu]

I started putting 2GB of ram in all my computers more than 2 years ago. The speed increase from 1GB to 2GB is significant, even on XP.

[E6600]

I need to do the same. The thing is how fast RAM should I install? as fast as the CPU's FSB?
E6600 FSB is 1066MHz should the RAM I install be as fast or it doesn't really matter?

[Power666]

Believe it or not, 533 Mhz RAM is what matches up with your FSB to run synchronously. Faster memory will work but they take a latency penalty for running asynchronously with your FSB (though 1066 Mhz is less of a hit than 667 Mhz or 800 Mhz).

Also pay attention to memory timings. Lower is better here and you can find some every low timings on 533 Mhz DDR2 memory.

[E6600]

The current RAM I have installed are 2x512MB 667 Mhz, so replacing them with say 2x1GB 533 Mhz will result in a performance increase, wow!
I believe you, but I don't understand how less is more.

[Power666]

The reason why using lower speed memory is ultimately faster comes down to latency. Latency is a measure of time to send a signal and get a response back. The lower this amount of time, the better. Bandwidth is another metric of how much information is being sent. The more bandwidth a processor has access to, the better. The faster the memory speed, the more bandwidth is generally available (there are a few fringe exceptions).

The catch with the FSB of Pentium 4 and Core 2 processors is that there is a limit to how much bandwidth the processor has access to. Thus providing more memory bandwidth than FSB bandwidth is wasteful in terms of processor performance. There are some cases where the extra bandwidth can be used for various IO but those cases are mainly server centric in nature. So to improve performance memory latency has to be lowered. Timings on the memory modules themselves are a good start. Higher clock speed (ie higher bandwidth) modules tend to have higher timings than lower clock speed modules. Additionally, the conversion of clock speeds between 1066 Mhz FSB and 667 Mhz memory adds a bit of latency of its own.

If you have the extra slots, I wouldn't throw away your old RAM. Higher speed RAM can run at a lower speed. This can be set in the machine's BIOS. Lowering the speed of your RAM may also allow it to run at lower latencies but journeying into this territory is akin to the fine art of overclocking. You may be able to run your current memory at 533 Mhz at lower latencies and compare directly to how it was set up by default. I suspect you'll see a small performance increase.

[:D:]

If he adds the slower RAM the old RAM will automatically change to 533 without changing anything in the BIOS, won't it?

[Power666]

Usually adding slower memory will default everything to the slower speed. Usually though. I've know of a few exceptions but they are quite rare.

[:D:]

Yeah, that's what mine did when I added some slower RAM one time.