1G of DDR333 or 512M of DDR400?

[BFG9000]

I'm waiting on my new Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard (nForce2). I do not intend to overclock. Would I get better performance from 512M of DDR400 (even running at 333MHz) or 1G of DDR333? Both *could* be CAS2 memory. Currently high performance memory, such as 512M of Corsair DDR400 matched memory (TWINX512-3200LL) is about as expensive as 1G of CAS2 DDR333, such as Kingston HyperX (KHX2700/512).

I'm looking for best value and good gaming performance in general.

 

[Blurry]

Go with the 512M of DDR 400...it'll give you more overclocking headroom ( not to mention being able to use it when the 800FSB mobos come out). I doubt you'll need a gig of ram.

Edit: Oops, forgot that you don't want to o/c. Still, go with DDR 400 if you'll want to upgrade to the new Canterwood/Springdale motherboards.

 

[Kartajan]

I really do not see any reason for running an NForce2 w/ 1 gig of ram, nor do I see effectively using DDR400 on that platform. I would get matched 256M DDR333 for that board.

The point about canterwood/ springdale chipsets is valid, but given that you would need to buy the board as well as the CPU- I'd not worry about that issue.

 

[TheCorm]

Yeah you gotta be doing some serious video editing, multitasking and stuff to need 1gb of ram....the faster ram will speed up general operations....

 

[Rav3n]

If you aren't using 2 sticks of RAM in your mobo, you will not be taking advantage of the nforce2's sweet memory controller enhancement stuff... that said, it seems like you are only looking to buy 1 stick of ram. The performance difference between DDR333 and 400 is not tremendous in most tasks, and I can't imagine you noticing any real-world difference. 1 GB of RAM is definitely ridiculous if you aren't doing the intense stuff mentioned by others above. Here's a different suggestion: go for a stick of 333 256 and a stick of 400 256. You get your 512 mb, you take advantage of the memory controller's architecture, and you don't spend an inordinate amount of money on just one stick. Also, it leaves room to upgrade to another 400 256 stick when you want to splurge. I don't know that is the greatest idea, but its a compromise. If you really want to do damage, just get 2 sticks of 400 512