Overclocking with 1 stick of 512Meg PC3200

[Mavrick007]

I was wondering if it's a good idea to buy one stick of Corsair 512Meg PC3200LL ram now and put this on an Epox 8RDA+ with a 2100+,
or if I should go with 2 x 256meg sticks of Corsair PC3200LL?

I would like to eventually get a gig of ram, but 512Megs is pretty hefty as it is for price right now on the Corsair stuff.
Should I go with 1 stick and prepare for the future, or just go with the standard 2 x 256Meg right now and stay with the 512Megs?

How is the overclocking with just 1 stick of 512Megs? Easier? Harder? Noticable performance difference than dual channel?
Overclock higher with 1 stick 512Megs or 2 x 256Megs dual channel?

Just like to get some people's ideas and experiences.

 

[human2k]

Get one stick, it will allow you to attain higher FSB speeds. Two sticks will lower your overclockability. The high FSB from one stick should make up for Dual Channel DDR.

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: human2k
Get one stick, it will allow you to attain higher FSB speeds. Two sticks will lower your overclockability. The high FSB from one stick should make up for Dual Channel DDR.

While thats a good point, as 2 sticks of memory can only run as fast as the slowest one could, If from the same batch/brand, I highly doubt they'll differ more than 5mhz.

I've only heard this from one person on this board, but I do recall hearing that if you can run 2 sticks in the dual channel DDR slots, and another stick in the left over slot, you'll recieve the dual channel, and all the memory capacity from all the sticks. So maybe 2 256mb DIMMs for the dual channel configuration now, then an extra 512mb for the 1GB later? I'm not 100% sure if this works, as I really havn't researched it. Perhaps someone else will have a better idea?

If that doesn't work, I would opt for 1 stick of 512mb now, and get the next one as soon as you could, skipping the 256mb DIMMs all together.

I'm not sure if this is unrealistic or not, but in my mind, I would perfer to buy Memory together all at once, so theres a much higher chance I recieve memory from the same batches, so one doesn't run much faster than another, or they didn't use a different memory configuration (1 sided, vs 2 sided). Which would decrease the chance that the memory DIMMs could run in dual channel configuration.

Good luck.

 

[Mavrick007]

I'm almost half tempted to buy 2 x 512 Megs of Kingston HyperX PC3000 for about the same cost as one 512Meg PC3200LL Corsair(the cost difference is only like $20-25).
That's a whole other story though.

I agree, I would like get 512meg sticks but the differences between getting one now and another later may prove to be a bad idea.
Yes, you should be able to still do dual channel with the 2 x 256 and then adding 1 x 512, but overclocking with 3 sticks of ram is just not a good idea, so I'm hesitant to do that.

Here newegg has for the 2 x 256meg PC3200LL Corsair TwinX now for $165. One stick of 512Meg Corsair PC3200LL is ~$150 (whereas the 1gig TwinX is around $295).

Cost isn't too much different anyway you look at it(except if I buy 2 x 512meg later it will end up costing me another $35+).

 

[human2k]

The TwinMOS Winbond BH5 stuff from memoryx from what I have heard has been able to run agressive timings also, its $122 per 512mb pc3200 stick, you could look into that.

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: Mavrick007
I'm almost half tempted to buy 2 x 512 Megs of Kingston HyperX PC3000 for about the same cost as one 512Meg PC3200LL Corsair(the cost difference is only like $20-25).
That's a whole other story though.

I agree, I would like get 512meg sticks but the differences between getting one now and another later may prove to be a bad idea.
Yes, you should be able to still do dual channel with the 2 x 256 and then adding 1 x 512, but overclocking with 3 sticks of ram is just not a good idea, so I'm hesitant to do that.

Here newegg has for the 2 x 256meg PC3200LL Corsair TwinX now for $165. One stick of 512Meg Corsair PC3200LL is ~$150 (whereas the 1gig TwinX is around $295).

Cost isn't too much different anyway you look at it(except if I buy 2 x 512meg later it will end up costing me another $35+).

Dual HyperX sounds good, they perform extremely well from what I hear on reviews, and users of this forum.

Try the FS/T forum for perhaps better deals? I got lucky and scored 1GB of PC3200 (PalmPC stuff with Winbond -BH5 chips) for $175 shipped. So far, they run great.

 

[howdyduty]

This is a good question. Especially on ability to run dual channel DDR with more than two sticks on the mobo. Can someone verify or provide a link on this dual channel DDR with 3+ sticks of ram?