Memory: 4 sticks or 2? (for 2 GB)

[amking]

I still have yet to decide on a cpu and memory configuration for my new system, and I wanted to know why so many of you prefer 2x1gb sticks (to hit 2 gb) over 4x512mb.....don't you get lower latencies when using 4 sticks? (er at least thats what it looks like when glancing @ the latencies of corsair's product offerings). Anwyays I know past asus 939 a64 boards had problems with memory overclocking and such, but from what I've read, the A8N-SLI Premium I'm looking to get doesnt have these issues......although to be perfectly honest, I wasnt really planning on overclocking my memory all that much....or my entire system for that matter (since I don't really have a lot of exp doing it). Feel free to post comments/explanations.....or any opinions you may have about my hardware choices. Thanks! :beer:

Well.....here's the old ongoing list I've had as I've bought parts, etc:

MOBO: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium nForce 4 (Socket 939)

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, Toledo Core (90 nm)

OR

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 2.8 GHz, 1 MB L2 Cache, San Diego Core (90 nm)

HEATSINK: Thermalright XP-90

CPU FAN: Vantec "Tornado" 92mm Fan

HD: WD Raptor 74 GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive x TWO (RAID 0 -- OS)

HD: WD 300 GB 7,200 RPM SATA Hard Drive x TWO (RAID 0 -- Movie Storage for Pinnacle Showcenter.....MIGHT go SATA II now)

HD: WD 200 GB 7,200 RPM SATA Hard Drive (Mass Storage)

HD: WD 80 GB 7,200 RPM IDE Hard Drive (Backup drive used by Norton Ghost)

CASE: Lian Li "PC-75B" Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Case

FANS: Vantec "Tornado" 80mm Chassis Fan x TWO

RAM: CORSAIR XMS Pro Xtra-Low Latency, 2-2-2-5 DDR400, 512MB x 4 = 2 GB

PSU: Enermax 600W NoiseTaker EG-701AX-VE SFMA 2.0

GPU: ASUS 256 MB GeForce 6800 GT x TWO (SLI)

OR

GPU: ASUS or BFG 256 MB GeForce 7800 GTX x TWO (SLI)

SOUND: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Pro Platinum

DVD+-R/RW: Sony DRU-720A DVD Burner

CD-R/RW: Sony CRX230E1B2 CD Burner

DVD-ROM: Sony DDU1613 DVD-ROM

VFD: Matrix Orbital MX532 VFD Baybus Display (matrixorbital.com)

CONTROLLER: Vantec NXP-305-BK Fan and Light Controller

READER: LIAN-LI USB 2.0 7-in-1 Card Reader

FLOPPY: SONY MPF920 Floppy Disk Drive

IDE CABLE: 36" Vantec IDE Rounded Cable

IDE CABLE: 24" Vantec IDE Rounded Cable

FLOPPY CABLE: Vantec 18" Sliver Floppy Cable

PCI-E CABLE: Included with power supply x TWO

SATA CABLE: Random right angle cables x TWO (already from work)

LIGHTING: 12" x TWO Cold Cathode Blue Light Kit (included with controller)

OS: MS XP Professional OEM (already have)

THERMAL COMPOUND: Arctic Silver Ceramique High Density Thermal Compound

BEZELS: Lian Li Brushed Aluminum Bezels (If needed)

MONITER: Viewsonic G22fb 22" CRT Moniter (might get...might not)



I know the list seems excessive, I was just pasting the "check list" I already had running because I'm lazy........I have a LOT of the parts from older systems (like the HD's and all the optical drives/cabling/etc).

 

[mwmorph]

2x 1gb sticks will work the same 4x 512mb sticks. but 2x 1gb is less hassle of weather if it is double sided or not. just easier to shop for. if same price, go 2x1gb.

 

[amking]

its more expensive to get the 2x1gb

 

[Waylay00]

2x1GB definately.

 

[MaDfLaMe37]

lol then go with the 4x512

badass system you're putting together (do you REALLY need that many HDD's?!)...

how much dough are you forking over for that?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: amking
its more expensive to get the 2x1gb

how much more expensive and exactly what ram are you buying? besides looking at your build, i dont think cost is an concern.

btw, get the cheapest trusted brand 1 gig sticks. it should cost no more than $100-110 a gig. all this cas stuff is utter crap. 3-3-3-10 and 2-2-2-5 only differ in performance around 2% hell average and is really only 0-3% in all programs except in the benchmark Sissoft Sandra and WinRAR/WinZip

different speeds is also largely unimportant. the difference between pc2100 and pc3200 same latencies is only 3-10%(3-5% for most games, 10% for WinRAR(6-7% average). Of course, the borken benchmark Sissoft Sandra reports osmething like a 40% difference.

 

[Mrvile]

I'd say 2 sticks of a gig each. Using 4 sticks slows down the ram and doesn't allow for more ram (if ever you need more in the future).

 

[Cuular]

The only place that it makes a huge difference is if you are going to try and overclock.

Most motherboards are sensitive to the extra power it takes to drive the extra memory modules. And when overclocking you usually pump the power up on most of the components.

So it's usually easier to obtain higher overclocking with less memory modules, and it also allows you to choose 1T over 2T in the memory timings section which does have an effect on speed.

Anandtechs latest check of the X2 processors and it's memory controller shows that it still forces 2T timings with 4 modules installed.

Though, as mentioned above, outside of benchmarks the difference in speed is probably not noticeable to the average person. To someone doing large video edits or other memory intensive work, it may be noticeable. The average user doesn't put a huge stress on the memory subsystem, and probably see's less than a 5% increase from using the faster memory timings.

 

[amking]

Originally posted by: MaDfLaMe37
lol then go with the 4x512

badass system you're putting together (do you REALLY need that many HDD's?!)...

how much dough are you forking over for that?

most of the components I have accumulated from other systems (like the hd's, cabling and optical drives)....and a couple of the items I got at a pretty decent discount (either with a tax id from a wholesaler or through a friend who is sponsored by nvidia & asus)


as far as "do i need that many drives"....well yes, I do, because I dont want my binders full of dvds (1,000+) chillin downstairs out in the main room of my apt for people to jack....so my roomates and I plan on using the Pinnacle Showcenter or something similar to stream all of the "digital content" (music/movies/pictures) from the computers in the apt on the network to the tv setup in the living room....retail the cost of the system would probably be above $4,000.

Keep in mind i already sold one rig and plan on selling my 3500+ winne to help cover the costs...

 

[Trizik]

as far as I can tell, the only difference is that 4 x 512MB sticks will run at 2T while 2 x 1GB sticks will run at 1T. I just upgraded my RAM and since I already had 2 x 512MB sticks, I got two more 512MB sticks.

 

[KoolDrew]

With 4 sticks you will have to run 2T. Get 2x1GB.

 

[amking]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
With 4 sticks you will have to run 2T. Get 2x1GB.

oooooooooooooooooook

 

[Trizik]

Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Trizik
Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

Not really.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Trizik
Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

Not really.

it's similar to the whole latency thing. about the same performance impact.

 

[angstsoldat]

ur buying so many HDs and extra crap anyway why not just try 512x4 and 1GBx2 ..


580 GB .. Jesus... thats like ... 100 games and like a Wal Mart's worth of music CDs O_O

 

[tfinch2]

2 6800GT's in SLI? Do yourself a favor and just get one 7800.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Trizik
Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

Not really.

it's similar to the whole latency thing. about the same performance impact.

but once you start adding it all up, CL3 ram + 2T + pc2100 (did your really recommend getting pc2100 ram to save money, what is that like $2 savings) you'll definately notice a difference.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Trizik
Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

Not really.

it's similar to the whole latency thing. about the same performance impact.

but once you start adding it all up, CL3 ram + 2T + pc2100 (did your really recommend getting pc2100 ram to save money, what is that like $2 savings) you'll definately notice a difference.

no i did not recommend cl3 ram, pc2100 or 2t. 2t is only on when you have 4 sticks of 2 sided ram. so that is why i said get 2 sticks of 1gb each ram. it is too hard to figure out what 512mb sticks are single and double sided.

1gb cl2.5 or cl3 pc3200 ram can be found for around $100 easily.

now i meant get cheap pc3200ram(legacy pc2100 actually tends to cost more due to dwindling supply i believe). im just saying dont go out and spend $250 a gig for cas2 TCCD overclocking ram because

A) the latencies dont help too much and
B) when you oc, use dividers because increasing the speed of the ram dosent help too much either.

$100 a gig of ram is good enough. dontr go overboard with the flashy but useless heatsinked ram that costs 2-3x as much.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Trizik
Is the drop from 1T to 2T really that noticeable?

Not really.

it's similar to the whole latency thing. about the same performance impact.

but once you start adding it all up, CL3 ram + 2T + pc2100 (did your really recommend getting pc2100 ram to save money, what is that like $2 savings) you'll definately notice a difference.

no i did not recommend cl3 ram, pc2100 or 2t. 2t is only on when you have 4 sticks of 2 sided ram. so that is why i said get 2 sticks of 1gb each ram. it is too hard to figure out what 512mb sticks are single and double sided.

1gb cl2.5 or cl3 pc3200 ram can be found for around $100 easily.

now i meant get cheap pc3200ram(legacy pc2100 actually tends to cost more due to dwindling supply i believe). im just saying dont go out and spend $250 a gig for cas2 TCCD overclocking ram because

A) the latencies dont help too much and
B) when you oc, use dividers because increasing the speed of the ram dosent help too much either.

$100 a gig of ram is good enough. dontr go overboard with the flashy but useless heatsinked ram that costs 2-3x as much.

ok sry i must of have read wrong.

 

[luigi1]

I bought 2x1 gig Kingston value ram. $198 at newegg. You can buy it cheaper but I like newegg coustomer service. Booted up dual channel 1T timings. It just don't get no better than that.

 

[kd2777]

It looks like you are going to be doing video work, so you may need to go with 2*1GB sticks. If for no other reason you can add more down the road if needed as editing programs become more intense. I just bought a dual pack of this Mushkin. I got it because of it's good timings. I hear that OCZ makes some really nice 1GB sticks as well.

While you are looking at all this RAM, look at a couple articles on the advantages of the dual core CPUs. Like I said before it looks like you are going to be editing some video and those dual cores may help you out there.

kd

 

[carloboy]

Id like to add a question...

would have 4x512 affect the overclockablity of your system compared to just 2x512's?

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: kd2777
It looks like you are going to be doing video work, so you may need to go with 2*1GB sticks. If for no other reason you can add more down the road if needed as editing programs become more intense. I just bought a dual pack of this Mushkin. I got it because of it's good timings. I hear that OCZ makes some really nice 1GB sticks as well.

While you are looking at all this RAM, look at a couple articles on the advantages of the dual core CPUs. Like I said before it looks like you are going to be editing some video and those dual cores may help you out there.

kd

i'd get the 2x1gig also.

i'm waiting on the same mushkin but from tankguys.. not a shot at newegg but a pat on the back for tankguys. good prices and great service. even sent me an emailed link to dfi.street when they saw me getting an ultra-d. they keep me up to date and as an interesting feature, it seems like every correspondence you have with them is kept on the order staus page. nice touch.