Memory questions - Please help

[Valdier]

I am after a bit of reading going to upgrade to a EPoX 8RDA+ with a XP 2100. My question is, the EPoX 8RDA+ uses PC 3200 ram... I don't especially want to pay for the premium memory on the market right now... what kind of speed problems or compatibilty issues will I have if I decide to just throw in some Kingston PC2100 ?

Second question, any advantage to 1 512mb stick over 2 256mb sticks?

Thanks for any answes

 

[Lord Evermore]

PC3200 is a MAXIMUM speed memory that the board is rated for. It's perfectly functional with slower memory (and likely more stable, possibly even higher performing with PC2700 due to fudging of memory timings to make 400MHz PC3200 work). PC2100 will work just as well, though you might see a bit of a performance gain with PC2700 instead; the price difference isn't tremendous.

You'll get better performance with two modules instead of one on this board, as the nForce2 allows dual-channel memory. With single channel chipsets, there's no significant and constant difference between a single module and two modules, other than leaving yourself a better upgrade path by using one module (so you don't have to replace two modules if you wanted to go to 1GB of memory later). With a dual-channel chipset, in order to increase memory later, you'll have to replace both modules.