Which would be faster?

Samtheman1k · 10 Nov 2006 at 08:06

I have an ASUS A700V motherboard with a Barton 2400 clocked to 3200 (@2.2GHz). I have just put in some Cosair XMS DDR ram (2x512) as an upgrade from my 2x256 cruical stuff. But, which combination of the following would be faster?

1024MB Cosair with FSB at 400MHz, or
1272MB Cosair + Cruical, all at 333MHz?

Bearing in mind that I normally use the PC for gaming, e.g. BF2. The upgrade from 512MB to 1Gb showed a phenominal increase in peformance, due to actually having RAM available after the winXP overhead

, but would I get a further increase in performance by adding an extra 256MB stick, but having to lower the FSB from 400MHz to 333MHz?

rangor gubbins · 10 Nov 2006 at 13:39

test it and find out

Personally i would probably sell the 2x256s and get a single 512 PC3200, to run the whole lot at 400mhz. shouldn't cost you too much, especially if you can find some second stuff

Dureth · 10 Nov 2006 at 14:10

Almost certainly going to be the 2x512MB at 400Mhz. More memory bandwidth and anything that uses more than 1GB of RAM is likely to be far too heavy duty for the rest of the system. Heck I'm still only running 1GB of RAM and I havn't run into any bottle necks yet.

Samtheman1k · 10 Nov 2006 at 14:13

rangor gubbins said:
test it and find out

Personally i would probably sell the 2x256s and get a single 512 PC3200, to run the whole lot at 400mhz. shouldn't cost you too much, especially if you can find some second stuff

That is what I would like to do, unfortunately the ASUS mobo only supports 400mhz on the first two slots for some strange reason!

mikeymike · 10 Nov 2006 at 14:13

1024 - it will run in dual channel then, defo better than 256meg extra but slower and only single channel operation

Captain Fizz · 10 Nov 2006 at 15:00

2 x 512 MB @ 400MHz would be the best.

If it was another 512MB stick, then the drop in speed may be worth it for BF2 - But for an extra 256MB - Not worth it IMHO.
(BF2 wants over a gig to run sweetly)

As suggested - See if you can sell the 2 x 256's (or put them in a spare box) and see if you can get another 512MB stick.
(And it only supports 400MHz in 2 slots? Grooo.

)

mikeymike · 10 Nov 2006 at 15:29

i think it would support 400mhz in more than 2 slots, but im guessing the older memory is in actual fact DDR2700, hence why he said run at 333mhz if all sticks were in