# Compatibility of DDR2 800 Mhz Rams with 945 chipset based  motherboards



## quicky008 (Nov 7, 2015)

I have an older system having a c2d cpu and an ASrock wolfdale 1333-667 motherboard with 1 gb of ram.I'm interested in upgrading the RAM to improve its performance-however the problem is my mobo officially supports only DDR2 533/667 MHz modules which are rather hard to find in the market these days-most of the retailers i contacted said that they only have 800 mhz DDR2 rams in stock.

I already have a 667 mhz transcend ram in my system,so if i buy another 2 gb DDR2 800 mhz ram from the same manufacturer and install it along with my existing 667 mhz module,will that cause any stability or compatibility issues in the long run?Is it safe to use 800 mhz modules on motherboards that don't support memories with speeds above 667 mhz?Can mixing ram modules of 2 types(667+800 mhz)on my system possibly have any detrimental effects on the motherboard or ram itself?


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## SaiyanGoku (Nov 7, 2015)

Post screen shot of Memory Tab in CPU-Z. Check if both the ram modules have same latencies. If yes, they should work in dual channel mode but the higher one will be downclocked to 667 mHz.


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## quicky008 (Nov 7, 2015)

actually i haven't bought the 800 mhz module yet-will buy it only if its compatible with my motherboard and can work in conjunction with my current 1 gb ddr2 667 mhz ram


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## topgear (Nov 8, 2015)

In most of the cases it would work but you never know unless you give it a try so prepare to bite the bullet


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## quicky008 (Nov 8, 2015)

^yeah-that's what i'm afraid of-nothing would be more frustrating than buying a new stick of ram and then finding out that it doesn't work with your motherboard.


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## topgear (Nov 8, 2015)

But in such cases your options are very limited so take the plunge .. Remember " who dares wins "


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## quicky008 (Nov 8, 2015)

^lol-i suppose i have no choice now but to take a leap of faith and get that ram and then find out what happens!

btw today i found a dealer on olx who's offering used transcend ddr2 2gb 800 mhz modules  for as low as Rs 600-he claims they are as good as new;do you think it would be a good idea to go for such rams?Is there any way to check whether the rams he're selling are genuine or counterfeit chinese products?As their prices are very low as compared to that of new ones,i'm feeling rather tempted to buy them.


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## topgear (Nov 9, 2015)

This thread should be helpful :
*www.digit.in/forum/service-rma-watch/189295-counterfeit-products-transcend-kingston-ram.html


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## quicky008 (Nov 10, 2015)

^Well i already bought the used transcend ddr2 800 mhz ram from that dealer today for Rs 550-i tested it on my system and so far it has worked just fine with my older ram.However there's one thing about it that bothers me-on examining the module closely i observed that the memory chips on it have the logo of "Hynix" imprinted on them(just as they usually are on a ram manufactured by hynix)-is it normal for the ICs on a transcend module to have the markings of hynix on them?I found it really baffling as on my older transcend ram(purchased in 2006),the memory chips are clearly labelled as "transcend" -they have no markings of hynix or any other brand whatsoever.

After seeing this i began to wonder whether i have received an original or a fake product,so i checked it using cpu-z-there under the SPD tab,the manufacturer of this ram is shown as "transcend information" (just like my older ram which is a genuine transcend product)-does that mean that the module has indeed been manufactured by transcend and is not necessarily a duplicate product?Does transcend use memory chips manufactured by hynix in their rams?I'd be grateful if someone could kindly shed some light on this matter and clear my confusions,thanks.

Here's what cpu-z shows about the newly installed module:

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet


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## Flash (Nov 10, 2015)

^ Transcend RAMs have hologram imprinted on every RAM.


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## quicky008 (Nov 10, 2015)

yes,it does have a hologram on it


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## topgear (Nov 10, 2015)

Transcend can use all sorts of ram chips be it Hynix / Micron or sometime can even rename chips bought from other OEMs. Kingston and Transcend have memory chips with their name but they are not DRAM chip manufacturer. So they can buy chips from Hynix, Micron, Samsung, Elpida, Nanya, Winbond, Powerchip etc. Either they can use it directly without renaming or rename the chips to show it it's theirs for a positive advertisement kinda thing.


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## quicky008 (Nov 11, 2015)

Well in that case i hope its not a fake transcend module but an original piece with hynix chips on it that have not been renamed-the SPD info from this ram identifies it as a transcend product-do you think this information is trustworthy and cannot be tampered with or modified in any way in order to pass off fake ram chips as genuine?


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## topgear (Nov 12, 2015)

You never can be sure as it's possible to rename the info. Only way to be sure is send an e-mail to the manufacturer with the s/n of the product as they maintains a database for the same.


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