Installing additional memory {uneven}

Question

Hi, I have a dell Inspiron 9300 with 512MB Ram, Eventually I want to upgrade to 2GM of ram, does anyone know if I can successfully install a 1GB along with the 512MB until I can afford the additonal 1GB ram.  I know that typically ram is installed in pairs of the same MB, but I seem to recall that I upgraded an older Dell system with uneven memory in the distant past.  I want to be sure that I'm not doing any harm, while at the same time, I don't want the current 512 MB to go to waste if I can help it; in other words in my mind 1.5GB ram is better than 1GB or .5GB.  Thanks in advance for anyone's experience with this.

4fluke · Answer

It shouldn't be a problem - I've got a 512 M memory card along with a 256 M memory card in my machine - no problemo.

bacillus · Answer

yes, you can used unmatched sticks of memory though this will disable dual channel memory support.

scottatah · Answer

also verify your particular pc handles 1GB sticks of memory.

4fluke · Answer

Good point - I take that for granted now....

bacillus · Answer

the 9300 can use 2Gb of ram!

rickmktg · Answer

@4fluke wrote: It shouldn't be a problem - I've got a 512 M memory card along with a 256 M memory card in my machine - no problemo.  Your 5150 doesn't have dual channeling...

topcat43 · Answer

Thanks to all of you for responding, One question, what's the impact of disabling dual channel?

scottatah · Answer

performance. Ram essentially runs at half the speed of dual channel.

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