Whats faster 4x 1GB or 2x 2GB?

bluestreak101 · 18 Apr 2008 at 14:26

Hey,

I currently have this Corsair kit in my system, and im tempted to upgrade from the 2GB to 4GB but im not sure whether its worth buying the same kit again and having 4x 1GB sticks or a new kit of 2x 2GB

I was looking at these

I have Vista Ultimate 32 bit at the moment, but looking at changing to 64 very soon.

Which of the two configs will be faster and what do you guys recommend?

kevpuk · 18 Apr 2008 at 19:18

Um, I was under the impression that less sticks is marginally less load on the memory controller.....but don't quote me on that

Dark_Angel · 18 Apr 2008 at 19:29

kevpuk said:
Um, I was under the impression that less sticks is marginally less load on the memory controller.....but don't quote me on that

Yeah, I believe you are right.

In theory this means that overclocking can be better with only 2 sticks of ram...

Tute · 18 Apr 2008 at 20:06

Some of the 2GB sticks are really poor overclockers though - I seem to remember a thread about one of the 4GB kits that wouldn't go more than 2MHz over it's rated speeds.

If I was going to go for a 4GB kit, it would have to be one of the more expensive ones. I've heard good things about the Ballistix kit in particular.

Dark_Angel · 18 Apr 2008 at 21:03

Really like my Reaper 8500 set that I purchased a few weeks ago

Adrianr · 18 Apr 2008 at 21:54

Tute said:
Some of the 2GB sticks are really poor overclockers though - I seem to remember a thread about one of the 4GB kits that wouldn't go more than 2MHz over it's rated speeds.

If I was going to go for a 4GB kit, it would have to be one of the more expensive ones. I've heard good things about the Ballistix kit in particular.

Geil Black Dragon isn't exactly breaking the bank and all have had fantastic OC reports on here. Though i don't know what you would consider to be 'more expensive ones'?

nightmare99 · 19 Apr 2008 at 10:23

A friend of mine got the 2x 2GB Geil Black Dragon PC6400 and they overclock far better than the set of 2x 2GB Corsair XMS PC6400 he returned.

Tute · 20 Apr 2008 at 15:32

Fair enough then - I was just pointing out that some of the kits are poor clockers. It's fairly easy to find out which are and which aren't with a bit of research.

bluestreak101 · 21 Apr 2008 at 14:45

hmmm, Im still unconvinced as logicially speaking, you should have a larger bandwidth between the memory and the processor as it will be running over 4 slots rather than two, but you're right when it comes to less load on the memory controller...

Althulas · 21 Apr 2008 at 23:26

I was able to run my 2x1g ocz9200 flex at stock and at 1200mhz using a fsb of 600 but since adding another 2 sticks I can only run them at a 1000mhz or I get random crashes.

bledd · 22 Apr 2008 at 09:49

no point getting 1gb sticks now, you'll be gutted with them before long

Junk · 22 Apr 2008 at 17:48

depends on the quality of the ram and motherboard.

historically 4 x 1gb would be quicker than 2 x 2Gb.

But people are getting reliability problems in some boards.

wannabedamned · 22 Apr 2008 at 18:57

Junk said:
depends on the quality of the ram and motherboard.

historically 4 x 1gb would be quicker than 2 x 2Gb.

But people are getting reliability problems in some boards.

Really? Same timings and frequencies, I would expect the 2 x 2gb kit to be faster, if only marginal.