Memory Question

[Windows98]

Hi everyone it has been a while since I last visited!

The school was throwing this computer out so I took it home and fixed it up a little.

Anyways I have a memory question:

System Specs can be found here:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/me/en/sm/WF06b/12454-12454-64287-3328896-3328896-454811-447283.html

Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
RAM: 512MB DDR2 3200

My memory questions are:

1. I found a memory stick that says DDR 400  and I was wondering if it would work on the computer.

The reason I ask is in Everest Home edition it says DDR2 400. The diffrence between these two RAMs are, 1 is a DDR, and the one I have in my computer is a DDR2, the pins look exactly the same, but the memory timming might be off a little,



2. I wish to buy more memory for my computer, however my biggest problem that is confusing me is, when I go to local stores website like bestbuy.com, staples.com circuitcity.com etc... and type in PC 3200 I only recieve DDR 3200 as my results.. No  memories are DDR2?

I wish to add at least 1GB of memory for my computer. so the DDR is totally confusing me. I don't want to buy memory if it does not work on my computer.

Thanks if anyone can answer, if you have more questions please ask.

[patio]

Best thing to do for memory is travel to Crucials site and either run the online scanner and/or enter your info...
It will tell you exactly what that machine will run.
I don't believe the 2 can be mixed.

[Windows98]

Ok I ran a scan off a website and I am confused on the results... Does it mean I can use any of those memory listed?

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=AEA182A531D926C3

They say DDR2-5300 or DDR2-6400

The hp website says DDR2-Sync DRAM PC3200 


I don't know which one to believe....

[patio]

Okay.
You have 4 slots on that board.
Each slot can take a stick with a max of 1G.
This means your max is 4G but unless you plan on running XP or Vista 64bit consider 3G to be a max.

It has to be DDR2 as i stated.
If you keep your old RAM the new RAM will run at the speed of the old RAM...not quite enough to notice the difference but some speeds have problems mixing.

So to decide what you want you can stay with PC3200 or check with HP to see if the board supports the faster RAM...i.e. 5300 or 6400.
Those #'s are RAM speed designations.

Then it's just a matter of shopping around for the best deal.

P.S. As to HP's info it's possible that when that machine was built that PC3200 was the highest speed for DDR2 RAM
(I'm sure i've thoroughly confused the issue)