4x 512 or 2x 1Gb Upgrade

plasticmekon · 2 Jan 2007 at 15:10

Hey,

I've currently got 2x 512Mb Crucial Ballisitx in my rig (A Pentium D 805 running at 3.8 with memory overclocked to suit). I want to upgrade to 2 gigs but dont know the ins and outs of performance with using 4 sticks instead of 2.

I'd obviously rather save cash and just bu 2 more sticks exactly the same as before, but if it's going to kill my rig using all four slots what with dual channel, 1T/2T (don't really know what that is) I might bin my exisiting sticks and go for 2x 1gb ones.

?

steve258 · 2 Jan 2007 at 15:28

For better results and ocability definately go for 2*1Gb setup. 4*512Mb will still work but often requires loose timings for better compatibility. Don't think Command Rate (1T / 2T) applies to Intel, had an intel rig before and the memory timings options were very limited.

snowdog · 2 Jan 2007 at 15:33

personally i wouldnt waste my time on selling 2x512, just buy another 2x512, intel pentiums dont really care about iming as long as they run synched with ram (1:1), it might limit your overclock if one module wants to overlcock less than the other 3, but you can loosen the timings to counter that...

DavidQ · 3 Jan 2007 at 17:34

would this be the same case for an amd x2 64 am2 setup? i'm running 2x512's of corsair 6400, my motheboard (K9N Neo-F) has two channels. what if i got a 2x1gb kit instead of a 2x512 kit instead? ideally i'd like to run vista as smoothly as possible.

steve258 · 3 Jan 2007 at 17:38

I think it's AMD that is more fussy about having 2 sticks of RAM instead of 4, that is the case with s939 A64s, not sure about AM2 though as I don't have experience with DDR2.

arfur · 3 Jan 2007 at 19:04

my old A64 didnt do 1T with 4 sticks but did with 2, FSB is what I found worked better with my A64 not timings...<Opens debate to be re-started

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