Considering some upgrades... question about RAM w/ NForce chipset

[ermular]

I'm thinking about buying an Abit NF7, which uses the nvidia nforce chipset. A friend told me that nforce chipset requires that I have two sticks of RAM. Is this true? Could it be 256 and 512 or do the two sticks have to be identical?

Any suggestions on what RAM I should buy? I'm considering crucial pc2700.

thanks,
Jonathan

 

[CZroe]

It does not require two sticks of RAM to operate.
It only requires two sticks of RAM to operate in "Dual-Channel Mode."
Dual-channel only makes sense if your are using DDR266 with an ultra-modern 333FSB AthlonXP CPU (Barton core), or you are using the integrated GeForce2-class 3D graphics (Which run faster with more memory bandwidth).
Single channel mode is just fine otherwise... Actually, running single-channel DDR333 on a Barton is faster than dual DDR266 as long as you aren't using the integrated graphics. A benefit of the memory being in sync with the FSB.