I need more memory. Suggestions needed

[freakit]

I currently have 2 sticks of pc3200 256 Mushkin memory. I want to add another 512. I do have 3 slots with only 1 slot left open. Would I be better off getting another 512 stick of the same brand? Or can I buy a different brand? I am also considering buying 1 sticks of 512 if I can find them at a good price to put me over 1 gig by using one of my 256 sticks.

If I buy 2 512 sticks I can always give both my Mushkin 256 sticks to my wife for her computer.

What should I do? I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I also don't want to buy junk.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Jumpman23]

I just think as long as youre buying a name brand of sort, Ram is not a big deal.........and if you can find two 512 sticks at a great price why not for for that. As far as mixing names, that's what I have right now, 512 PNY and 512Kingston.

[smokafatty]

You always have to be carefull when mixing brands of memory as some brands may be uncompatable. So it would be best to have all the same brand but it wouldn't hurt to try mixing it if you can reuse the old memory in case it doesn't work.

I guess it comes down to prices. If it only costs $10-20 more to get the same brand then I would probably do it just to make sure you get max compatibility.

[Acheron]

Corsair, Mushkin, Samsung, Kingston Hyper-X ... all good, should be able to get a deal on one of them. :)

[freakit]

I've been really looking at getting new memory. My wifes motherboard is on the its last leg. Thats my fault though. I was installing a sound card in a hurry and the screw driver slid off the screw and hit the motherboard. I cut a trace on the board and it doesn't boot up some times until I mess with the damaged area. No big deal. I'll buy her a new board for $50. She will then get my RAM since the new boards are ddr and hers has sdr.

Heres my new question. I noticed when looking at the RAM I see alot of numbers. What exactly should I get for best performance? Here are the number I'm talking about:

Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 2-3-2-6 1T
Support Voltage: 2.6V

Should I be looking at higher or lower numbers for best quality?

[Neo]

Error Checking: Non-ecc is the the standard for desktops. Get non-ecc unless you have a server and a mobo that supports it.

Registered/Unbuffered: This states if the RAM is buffered or unbuffered. Buffered ram is used in servers and workstatsions. It is also not as fast as un-buffered RAM. Buffered and unbuffered RAM can not me mixed. The buffered takes up one cycle.

Cas Latency: This referers to the latency of the RAM. Lower is better here. Most of the time if you have good RAM, you can lower the the 3 middle digits by one value, sometimes maybe more.

Support Voltage: Refers to the voltage that RAM can support. If you are going to be overclocking and up the voltage, then choose RAM that has a higher value.