Dual Channel vs. Single Channel

[govtcheez75]

My new Athlon 64 3200+ doesn't support Dual Channel. I have some PC3200 that I used in my previous Barton 2500+/nForce2 setup in 2x256mb dual channel mode.

...Considering that my new processor/mobo will not support dual channel, is it still beneficial to have these two matching sticks in the ram slots? ..or am I better off having 1x512mb?

I'm guessing that it won't matter anymore that the sticks match, as long as they are all the same speeds? I'm thinking of going 1x512mb, so I'll have the option to upgrade to a 1gb later.

Also, these sticks that I have run stable at 220FSB, so if I decide to overclock my A64 to 220x10 (2200mhz), it should be ok? Right?

 

[myocardia]

What motherboard do you have? I thought I had read somewhere that most of the Athlon64 boards didn't have pci/agp locks, just dividers. That means you'd need to be able to hit 233 for it to be stable.

 

[dguy6789]

Doesnt really matter if it is single channel. I would go for 512 chip so i could upgrade to a gig later, but doesnt it have 3 slots? Put 2X256 and a 512 later for 1GB.

 

[pelikan]

Chances are the 256MB sticks will overclock better than 512's.