now, i'm kind of confused with ram and stuff and i just wanted to ask this question: now, does a name brand ram conflict with normal ram? I mean, let's say you have a normal stick of ram in your computer. it came with it, it's a different name brand, etc. now, lets say you buy a new stick of ram, but it isnt the same name brand, but it is compatible with the motherboard (PC3200, etc...) now, if there are two different name brand sticks, but can work with the motherboard, would any problems arise? thanks in advance!

Generally, most RAM will work together, but there are certain things to be aware of. For example, if you pair up PC2100 with PC3200, the motherboard will automatically run both sticks of RAM at the speed of the slowest...so both would be treated as PC2100. If your board supports dual channel mode & you wanna use it, both sticks of RAM should have the same specs...for example, two sticks of 512MB PC3200 with the same chips count & similar timings. Most memory manufacturer's sell 'dual channel kits', which is nothing more than a matched pair of RAM to be used on a board that supports dual channel mode. ASUS A7N8X-X Athlon XP 1800+ 8.5 x 200MHz 1024MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro SP2

Mixing different brands of RAM is more prone to issues when used in dual channel configurations and/or using tighter RAM timings. If this is a name brand computer (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.), general best practice if you can't find the same brand of memory is either use memory guaranteed to work (www.crucial.com) with your existing RAM, or remove what is already in there and buy whatever brand you want. Note I'm not saying mixing won't work, but with RAM as cheap as it is, I avoid mixing unless it's guaranteed to work. Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina! www.redcross.org

well the ram i have purchased is compatible: its just that, this is going to lead to one of my earlier posts, i have "problems". well to make this long story short, when i purchased the RAM stick, which is a different name brand but is the same speed and works with the motherboard, my games would crash. i removed it, then i tested the ram sticks. meaning that i would remove one, games would work, remove the other, insert the new one, games would work, but both of t hem together meant my games crashing. a gentleman gave me the suggestion to remove windows 98 from my computer and install windows xp or to mess around with the memory timings. now, im kind of bleak on the loosening of the memory timings. even though i read through an article on this subject, im still... not getting it. thanks for the responses and i apologize for my lack of "skillz" :^/ ASUS A7N8X-X Mobo AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 2x512mb RAM PC3200 (no dual channel, different name brand, compatable) GeForce FX 5200 256mb Windows 98 SE