RAM 4x512mb or 2x1GB. Which one is better?

[Arclite]

I have recently purchased geil PC6400 1gb(2x512mb) dual channel kit. If i do buy another 1gb of the same ram (whenever the price drops) would it be alright, as i would be running 4x512mb instead of 2x1gb? Would there be a drop in performance?


Thanks

 

[davejuk]

2x1GB will perform exactly the same as 4x512MB, all things being equal and both running in dual channel memory mode.

However the 4 memory modules will consume slightly more power and produce more heat than the 2. This shouldn't be an issue unless you're maxing out your PSU, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.

 

[simonnance]

4x512Mb will run in 2T rather than 1T..... that's iff your ram is capable of 1T anyway!

OH, and generally it doesnt overclock so well, and is harder to upgrade later

 

[davejuk]

4x512Mb will run in 2T rather than 1T..... that's iff your ram is capable of 1T anyway!

OH, and generally it doesnt overclock so well, and is harder to upgrade later

What's 1T/2T? Something to do with the timing?

 

[WJA96]

What's 1T/2T? Something to do with the timing?

If you have 2 pairs of RAM sticks (in 4 slots) the chipset has to look at each pair separately (2T) but if you have only one pair it can effectively be told to only look at the one pair of RAM slots (1T) so in theory you can dramatically speed up memory access because the chipset is not wasting time looking for RAM in empty memory slots. In practice it's a small performance boost, but every boost is worth having - no?

Current Intel motherboards always run 2T so there is no advantage with those, but the NVidia 650i and 680i chipsets allow 1T memory timings.

 

[Arclite]

ok i dont know whether its right or not but my ram at the moment is running in 1T mode @ 4-4-4-12-20.

 

[trojan698]

Current Intel motherboards always run 2T so there is no advantage with those, but the NVidia 650i and 680i chipsets allow 1T memory timings.

Really?!! Another reason to buy the P5N!! ... ARGH!