Buying SDRAM 128 mb133mhz should I get one 1DIMM or 2DIMMS?

[Tyros]

Buying 1 DIMM is an additional $20.00 over the 2 DIMMS Whats the difference? There is even 3 DIMMS can someone explain this...




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[jonnyGURU]

There really is no difference whatsoever.

The reason why the price is more is because memory prices are dictated by supply and demand. There is little demand for 256s compared to the demand for 128s.

 

[JaiKnight]

Yup, just like jonnyGURU said, there's not much difference, just keep in mind that you may want the single chip in case you ever want to stick more RAM into your system! I had 2 64MB chips before and I traded them in for a 128MB chip so that I could free up a slot for the other 128MB chip I got 🙂

 

[Warrenton]

There are no speed benefits to geting one DIMM, actually there can be a speed benefit to getting two DIMMs if you use interleaving. But the downside to using 2 DIMMs is that you can't upgrade as much cost effectively without taking one of them out. My recommendation is to get a single 128MB DIMM.

Also make sure the timings of the SDRAM is 2-2-2. It makes such a difference in performance that you wouldn't believe it. Its about $10 more expensive for it at crucial, but in my opinion it is worth it.

1 DIMM is 128MB DIMM
2 DIMM is 2 64MB DIMMs
3 DIMM is 2 32MB DIMMs and 1 64MB DIMM

Just make sure that it is top quality memory. Because even two 3-3-3 DIMMs at 133Mhz can perform night and day apart. A 2-2-2 top quality PC133 would be 25% or more faster than a generic 3-3-3 PC133.