Did I do something really stupid? RAM question

[Nociod]

My computer is getting a little old (from 2007), and I thought I would update from my 2 gig of rams to 4.

I have never done it before, so I did some googling, and found that I needed to have DIMM type ram, and that it was important that the voltage didnt exceed 1,8 (which is what my motherboard apparently can handle).

I then went to an online store and bought 4 gig of ram. The plan is to throw away the old 2 gigs, because I have windows 32 bit, and 4 gig is the max it can handle

But here's the problem. I didn't think of the Mhz!
According to my computer specifications, these are the RAM that supports my computer

PC2-3200 (400 MHz)
PC2-4200 (533 MHz)
PC2-5300 (667 MHz)

But I bought 800 MHz!

So, did I do something really stupid?

Will the RAM still work?, if it will work, will it still function as 4 gig or will it be slowed down so much that there isn't any point in doing the upgrade?

Thanks for any feedback

 

[RoJoHen]

You broke the RAM forever.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Rule of thumb: if the RAM you buy is faster than your motherboard's rating, it will be fine. If it's vice versa, the RAM will be fried. But yes, you do have to match the voltage (as far as I know.)

RoJo: Be nice.

Also, the RAM won't be "slowed down" any more than usual, it will just run as fast as the rest of your RAM. Be aware that if you're using XP, you'll only be able to see 3.5GB of the RAM, due to memory addressing limitations of XP. To get access to the full 4GB you'll have to upgrade to 7 or a non-Windows OS.

 

[RoJoHen]

RoJo: Be nice.

I'm always nice. It gets boring.

 

[Nociod]

You broke the RAM forever.

Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rule of thumb: if the RAM you buy is faster than your motherboard's rating, it will be fine.

Phew! That's a relief , hehe.

----------

Thanks Robert for your help!

The voltage does match, so guess I will be fine

Also, the RAM won't be "slowed down" any more than usual, it will just run as fast as the rest of your RAM..

Ok. But remember that I will remove the old RAM. When I'm done there won't be any other RAM's running at the old speed. There will just be two new 800MHz chips.

If I understand you correctly, then I don't have to go to bios or otherwise make any effort to clock the RAM, as it will slow down on it's own to fit the motherboards rating. That I remove the old RAM will not affect anything?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

That's correct. Your RAM will run at the speed the motherboard is rated for. That's why you have to make sure the RAM is at least as fast as your motherboard. But faster is just fine.

 

[Nociod]

Thanks again for all the help