Is there anyway i can change this?

Heres the rest of the information about my computer if any of you are wondering
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 Ghz
3 GB DDR2 memory
500 GB RAM
And a ATI HD2600 Pro graphics card.
Thanks!

PC2-5300 runs at DDR2-667 which comes out to be about an actual clockspeed of about 333(.5) Mhz. That is normal.

Is this a disadvantage?
would you reccomend upgrading if i was to OC my q660 quad core?
And if i was to updrade and say bought 3 PC2-6400 800 MHz memory sticks then would they each still be 333 mhz? or what would happen?

I know its alot , sorry.
Thanks!

If you where to buy DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) or faster ram, you would have some headroom for overclocking. The motherboard should automatically run the ram at it's default speed that is programmed in the ram. Sometimes though, ram is marketed as DDR2-1066 (or whatever speed) but it is actually DDR2-800 that is guaranteed to reach at least DDR2-1066 when overclocking.

thanks!

Adam is incorrect it is not because the RAM is in dual channel.

The difference has to do with marketing departments taking advantage of effective speed instead of listing the actual speed.

I'll explain...

Data inside computers is typically moved over what are called "synchronous" busses. The synchronous means that the data is moved at a specific time which is regulated by what is called a "clock signal" this clock signal is just a single wire with a pulsing voltage. As an example during each pulse the voltage might fluctuate between 0 volts (low) and 3.3 volts (high). The tiny fraction of time that it takes for the voltage of the clock signal to go from low to high (0V to 3.3V in my example) is called the "rising edge" and the time for it to fall from high to low (3.3 to 0V) is called the "falling edge".

A clocks frequency is determined by the number of rising edges during a second and is listed in hertz (Hz). The rising edge is used because the data transfer will happen right when the clock edge happens.

Now that you know this i can properly address your question... if we break the acronym for DDR SDRAM apart it is:
Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.

Notice that in the middle of this mouth full that it says "synchronous" that means it works on a clock signal, now also notice that it has the "double data rate" stuck to the front of it. When something is "double data rate" or "double pumped" that means that data transfers will happen on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal.

So while in common hardware lingo the clock is running at 333 MHz which is right since there is in fact 333,000,000 rising edges on that clock signal during each second... the RAM is transferring data 667 million times since it also looks for falling edges. So they say that it is 667 MHz effective. Marketing departments would much rather list the effective speed since the number is bigger and looks more impressive, but now that you know how the whole thing works you'll know that DDR 667 means 333MHz clock frequency.

Your right, it's because it's DDR not because it's dual channel. What was I thinking?

One additional point beings that Dual Channel was brought up.
You will not be able to attain the highest effective throughput to your DRAM if you are running 3 DIMMs, you have to have an even number of DIMMs for the system to function in Dual Channel.

Gerritt

Would my best bet be just to have the 2 sticks in to run to its full potential?
I've tried putting a fourth 1Gig stick in but i only have a 32bit and it only reconizes it as 3.25 .
Is that still effective?
Thanks again for all the great info.

Yes, It will still run in dual channel with 4GB even though the OS can't recognize it all.

so would it be faster to just have the 2 in?
Or would 4 be the same , except it will only reconize 3.25?

Depending on the MB, you may have the maximum speed by using only 2 DIMMs, but this is usually associated with AMD MBs, and not Intel from my experience. Even if you had 4MB, but your system is only capable of recognizing 3MB of it, the 3MB would operate faster if it is done dual-channel, whether it be 2, 4 or 8 sticks.

If you own 4 sticks then run all of them in the system. Even though it only can use 3.25GB because it is a 32 Bit OS, it is still faster than 3 sticks because it's running in dual channel and you also get a tad more ram to work with. There's no performance hit just because it can not use all the ram. Sure it would be better if you could use all 4GB, but there is nothing wrong with running 4GB even when your OS can only use 3.25GB of it.

Adam,
Looks like a cross post to me.
I agree, given it's an Intel system...but I've run into major problems with AMD and 4 sticks.

Gerritt