number of RAM sticks

rangor gubbins · 25 Oct 2006 at 11:50

I'm trying to get the money together for a new PC. At current RAM prices 2GB is more than i can really afford. So i was thinking, as most modern mobos have room for 4 RAM sticks, is there any disadvantage buying just 1gb now (2x512), and then another 1gb or even 2gb later? Is there any disadvantage to running 4*512 sticks opposed to 2*1024 or even 2*512 + 2*1024?

cheers

t31os · 25 Oct 2006 at 12:59

You lose 1T command rate when using 4 sticks, 2 sticks should be fine for this.

w3bbo · 25 Oct 2006 at 13:00

Better to run one stick of 1 gig than 2x512 as this will not limit your upgrade path in the future. With Vista almost upon us which is capable of running in excess of the XP limit (3gig) it would be unwise to get 2x512mb sticks imo.

rangor gubbins · 25 Oct 2006 at 18:22

@t31os - is it that all mobos default to T2 if all 4 slots are full?

@w3bbo - i'm looking at DDR2 and i haven't found any single sticks (at least not on OcUK).

Rroff · 25 Oct 2006 at 20:02

w3bbo said:
Better to run one stick of 1 gig than 2x512 as this will not limit your upgrade path in the future. With Vista almost upon us which is capable of running in excess of the XP limit (3gig) it would be unwise to get 2x512mb sticks imo.

- not if his motherboard supports dual channel - 2 sticks would give far better performance...

rangor gubbins · 26 Oct 2006 at 11:28

This will be for a C2D setup probably with a DS3/DS4 (unless some other even better board comes out in the next few weeks).

Tooks · 26 Oct 2006 at 12:52

In which case 4 sticks will be fine. On Intel systems command rate doesn't matter. I think some folks are relating their experiences with AMD systems.

I've benchmarked my PC with both 2 x 1GB and 4 x 512MB (whilst my 2 x 1GB kit was being replaced) and there was NO difference whatsoever in the tests and games I ran.

The only time I think 2 x 1GB sticks might be better is if you're overclocking and then only in as much as you've got a better chance of finding 2 sticks that will run at higher OC'd frequencies than 4 sticks.

Having said that, I could overclock my system to the same level with 2 or 4 sticks as above.

rangor gubbins · 27 Oct 2006 at 01:37

Thats just what i wanted to hear

(your asus board and the gigabyte boards use the same chipset right?)

What mem sticks were you using in 2x1gb and 4x512gb?

Tooks · 27 Oct 2006 at 11:01

Yep, that's right, the same 965 chipset.

All of the RAM I mentioned was Corsair Value RAM 667 DDR2.

I would look to upgrade my RAM so I can overclock further, but to be honest, and with RAM prices where they are, it's looking more attractive just to upgrade my C2D to an E6600 or similar and spend less cash to breach the 3Ghz barrier where I'm at now!