DFI NF II and ram

[runzwithsizorz]

What exactly is "matching" ram? I have a 512 stick on the new DFI mobo and want to add another 512, same company, same everything, but from what I understand, this is not really "matching ram". I want dual channel support. I am familiar with Crucial, Mushkin, OCZ et al, but do not know what "Buffalo" or "MOS" ram is. I was leaning to matched OCZ OR just buying another 512 "matching" the one already installed.
Please advise and enlighten.
Thank you for helping a somewhat confused geek.

 

[mechBgon]

Go ahead and get that second module if you need more RAM. The motherboard doesn't require anything special (modules from same batch or whatnot). It will adopt the "slowest common denominator" between the two modules if they differ, and if you don't set its timings manually yourself, but that's normal behavior for just about all motherboards.

Don't expect radical performance differences because of dual-channel, however. If you're using onboard video, then yeah, it helps tremendously. If you're not, then it will give you a 0%-5% boost in most apps. Now, having twice as much memory may still yield large improvements in BF1942 map-loading times, or Photoshop, or video encoding, etc, just due to the increased amount of RAM and not the dual-channel aspect.

Hope that helps you out 🙂