Q: my pc was purchased about 4 years ago. everything is original except the additional ram i added... 2.4 ghz P4 1GB ram XP home 120gb hdd. the RAM speed is 266 which is what came with it so i kept it that speed when i added the max out memory of 512mb. so how much faster can i go? and if i go over the speed limit of the motherboard will my ram not work or will it just bottleneck?
A: There's no benefit to buying faster-rated RAM than your processor's FSB rating (except for overclocking, which you aren't doing) The only other advantage is that you might still be able to use that same memory later, if you upgraded to a faster CPU. But the higher Mhz RAM won't operate any faster in your current system. Go to crucial.com and run their system checker to find out exactly what type of RAM your motherboard supports.