I have a Dell Dimension 2400 with a 2.4gig Celeron and 250 meg ram. I wanted more ram so I put in a 500 meg stick. I was thinking of putting the old 250 meg ram stick in the second ram slot to bring it up to 750 megs ram, but someone told me that in order for the computer to run at maximum efficency I need to put a 500 meg ram stick in each slot. Is this true?

mrevad      

No, the memory for the 2400, does not have to be installed in pairs, it's single channel.

Bev.

My main question is , does a Dimension need a "matched pair" (two 256 meg sticks as opposed to a 512 meg stick, or two 512 meg sticks as opposed to a 1024 meg stick) to run at peak efficiency?

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 with a 2.4gig Celeron and 250 meg ram. I wanted more ram so I put in a 500 meg stick. I was thinking of putting the old 250 meg ram stick in the second ram slot to bring it up to 750 megs ram, but someone told me that in order for the computer to run at maximum efficency I need to put a 500 meg ram stick in each slot. Is this true?

That statement would be correct. There is a but, to it though, and this is it.

The key phrase here is "run at maximum efficency".

This is true for it to run at maximum efficency, however, if the original memory is compatible with the new memory, you could install the original memory and see if the system recogonizes it.

If it does, and boots, and is seen in the Windows information as a total of the 512 MB and the 256 MB, then you should be fine.

If it is not compatible with the new memory, it might not be recogonized, and all you would see is the 512 MB module.

Also, if the compatibility is of such an issue, the system might not even boot.

If you are successful in installing and getting the system to boot and recogonize both modules, you are good to go.

The system would not be running at maximum efficency, but at about 3/4 th it's maximum efficency.

You want be able to tell the difference between 768 MBs and 1 GB, normally, just maybe in some games.

There is another issue to be considered here.

If the modules are not the same speed, the system will clock both memory modules down to the lower speed module.

For me, it would be worth a try.

Hope this helps.  

mrevad

Happy to have helped.  :emotion-2:

Bev.