I recently bought a pair of 512mb SDRAM DDR2 533 to up my computer to 2gigs. The 1g already in the computer is 2x512mb DDR2 266. I'm still waiting on it to arrive, but after reading a little about RAM (I'm kind of clueless on it) it seems that the new ram will have to run at the slower 266 (If the 266 is left in the computer). So I guess my question is, would I see more performance out of leaving all of the RAM in to run at 266, or to take out the slower sticks and leave in the faster? And if I should leave them in...would there be a significant increase in replacing the slower sticks with faster 533 ones?
Actully, I dont think you can mix 2 different types of ram togeather... I dont think they will fit into the ram slots on your mobo. You would see better performance with the DDR2 533 ram in duel channel mode (if your mobo supports it)
The DDR2 533 isn't going to even work with your motherboard buddy. Not only are the voltages different, the RAM won't even fit in the slots. DDR and DDR2 require different motherboards unless you have one that supports both. And I doubt it since you have DDR 266, which is fairly old now. To answer your other question. You would see a performance gain if you took out the current RAM and put some higher speed RAM in. Even at 1GB vs 2GB you're still gonna see a slight difference with just the faster RAM. Return what you just ordered or cancel if you can and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220037 or if you had your heart set on 2GB get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231047 But make sure to check if your motherboard can use 1GB sticks. If not, then get two of the first link.
