what is the significance of memory "speed"?

[Jbon]

OK ,let me see if I can get this out and clearly.
I had purchased 4 matching Kingston ramsticksfor my HPP Pavilion back when I had learned enough about memory to be able to at least realize somhow evidently that these will fill a four set slots for 1 gig of memory .
here is the model#
KVR400X64C3A/256 (X 4) =1 GIG

VERSUS
DDR3200 CRUCIAL 512GB ( X 2) =1 GIG

mY PROBLEM is= the gigs or ram, one each for each of my two pc's
(I intend to employ "fx teleport" and use two pc's like the recommendation says)
the Crucial was bought for my mew build DAW pc,but my othe pc,has only 2 slots for memory.. so I am unable to fir it with a gig unless I use the much faster "speed" rated Crucial,
In this somewhat mismatched setup, both boxes have a gigof ram regardless of any "speed factors" ..a matter which sets the premis for my question, ina pc like our purposes or those of a GPO user, or otherwise audio/power pc user, what is the significance of memory "speed"?(again, for users such as "we")

[KevinKauai]

JBon - -

Be careful and do research what your computer boxes CAN TAKE in terms of memory. There are very few motherboards out there (in my experience) which will let you just toss *any* RAM into them (as long as the number of pins match, of course). Usually, a manufacturer certifies a particular box for "up to ____" and if your motherboard has 2 slots that typically means you sometimes get to pull out your 256 Meg RAM and replace it with 2 512 Meg chunks of RAM. In most cases the "speed" of the RAM must also conform to tolerances set forth for the particular motherboard which you are upgrading. (I think that it is possible to put memory of a speed which is faster than your system wants it AND to have a problem, so you'd do well to consult memory specialists when attempting an upgrade.)

More often, the motherboard is already populated with a max set (for one card) such as 512 Meg and any remaining slots are meant to be populated with the same density (i.e., if there were two slots you can put in a total of 1.5 gig in the case cited).

I hope this helps ... KevinKauai

P.S. RAM is getting cheap! I got two 512 Meg chips (one for each of my two SONY VAIO desktops) for about $80 each. I wish that I'd thought ahead to get a motherboard that would support 2 gig (the max that Windows XP will currently support and typically the max of any "off-the-shelf" pre-built system). I guess we all have to wait for 64-bit addressing to become standard and supported in a broader way than it is now.

[Jbon]

thanks Kevin

[Jbon]

I wonder if the gamer-type pc user is more likely to identify any significance in reference to the speed of memory.

That must be the case, as I am afraid more of the advancements in pc gear is already game-based than you wana talk about, if you get bothered by that sort o' thang, but thing thats lovely, is there always seems to be a piggyback scenario as in we, as audio enthusiasts seem to have benefitted greatly from advancements based on research done intended to benefit video-editing and other film related pc-tasks.
So all is good and well, too, in at least this categorie of concern, overall.
However, anyone among readers who have opinions are urged to comment on my"pcMusician's" ram speed pertinence question