mor ram or not

[TDiddy]

i have a 3.0 p4 w/ HT. it came w/ 2 sticks of 256 dual channel 3200. and 4 slots. would it benefit to add another 256 3200? (i have an extra) i surf , encode and play games. or does that ruin my dual chanellness. (will that extra 256 of ram help and be noticible?

Yes im a noobie

 

[stevty2889]

If you added a 3rd stick, it would make it run in single channel mode. You would have more ram, but half the bandwidth, so you would be better off waiting till you can get another 256mb stick, and run 1gig of ram in dual channel mode.

 

[Gamingphreek]

With everyone a bit hazy on this point, ill try to explain, you would still run in dual channel, however the optimal thing to do would be to put the 2x256 in one memory channel and a 512mb chip in the other channel so as to "even the channels out".

-Kevin

 

[stevty2889]

This is a pentium 4 chipset, it will not run in dual channel if you are using 3 sticks.

 

[Algere]

I heard it can but don't quote me on it.

 

[TDiddy]

so whats better 512 dual or 768 single chhannel? or 1 gig single channel. please rank them in order

 

[airfoil]

Considering your setup, anything dual channel is better than single channel, IMO.

Either get 2 more 256 meg sticks to fill all available slots and get the benefit of dual channel or leave it as it is, 512 MB is more than sufficient in most cases.

All comes down on what you use the rig for.

 

[Appledrop]

p4s are crap without dual channel... either use 1gb (4x256) or stick with 512 (2x256)

 

[TDiddy]

there were 4 slots the first paired close together (one slot was colored white and one was black)
the 2nd pair also had white and black. the original oem had 1 256 in each of the white slots? is that correct or should they be in 2 slots closest to each other (one black one white)

 

[stevty2889]

They should either be in the 2 white slots, or the 2 black slots to be in dual channel mode.