Dual Mem?

[Grovebaby]

Just bought Biostar M7NCDp. Been a long time since last build and memory has changed. What is "Dual channel" and is this the way to go, or not a big deal? Also any memory suggestions would be helpful. Need advice on Cpu also (amd) Thanks.

 

[xSauronx]

dual channel is an nforce2 thing for ram, performance gains i think are going 8-15% iirc; requires 2 sticks of ram, so id go 2x256 if youre on a budget, or 2x512 if money is burning a hole in yopur pocket. can get 2 sticks of buffalo pc3200 256mb from newegg for 100 or so shipped, geil or corsair a few dollars less

get a barton 2500+ retail if you arent into overclocking, the retail has a heatsink/fan included

 

[Root2486]

I recently put together a new system and after conducting extensive research I decided to purchase a mobo that supported dual channel memory and of course dual channel memory to populate the board with. Anandtech's guide titled searching for the memory holy grail was the primary deciding factor in my decision. When using dual channel memory, you must populate two or four channels; you can not use one module to operate in dual channel mode. Dual channel memory is capable of achieving a theoretical maximum of 6.4 GB per second. I will spare you the technical details and sum up by saying read the holy grail guide and see how benchmarks show that dual channel mode exceeds single channel performance.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Root2486
I recently put together a new system and after conducting extensive research I decided to purchase a mobo that supported dual channel memory and of course dual channel memory to populate the board with. Anandtech's guide titled searching for the memory holy grail was the primary deciding factor in my decision. When using dual channel memory, you must populate two or four channels; you can not use one module to operate in dual channel mode. Dual channel memory is capable of achieving a theoretical maximum of 6.4 GB per second. I will spare you the technical details and sum up by saying read the holy grail guide and see how benchmarks show that dual channel mode exceeds single channel performance.

Just FYI, there is no such thing as "dual channel memory" - the sticks themselves are single channel. The motherboard lets 2 or more of them work in dual channel mode.
For AMD procs, dual channel's increase is small, as Sauron said above. The main benefit is when you're using an nForce2 + IGP (integrated graphics) - then the built-in graphics can access the memory faster than it could over a single channel.
P4 dual channel gives a much bigger boost, as the P4 needs all the memory bandwidth it can get.

 

[Grovebaby]

Thanks for the reply's. Actually I am on a budget since I'm building 2 boxes. I'd love to get that Barton and the 3200. But I think I'll have to take it down a notch. Lookin for the best bang deal. There's no onboard graphics so I guess dual isn't that big of a thing? Last time I looked, I think the big jump in price was say after 2100+ for cpu and mem I don't know.