Question about RAM.

[Denithor]

I am setting up a cheapo C2D system for a friend and have an Asus 865G chipset motherboard that supports DDR ram up to PC3200 and will support dual channel.

The question is this: will it run faster with a single 512MB stick of PC3200 (obviously in single channel mode) or with their old pair of 256MB PC2100 sticks in dual channel mode? Will there be any (observable) difference at all? What is the best method to test for differences?

Thanks!

 

[Lemon law]

I would guess with the 256 MB pair in dual channel----but if you want to get a definitive answer, any benchmark program testing memory throughput should give a number---something like everest 2.2 springs to mind for a free utility. I also recommend something like memtest86---which is also free--and will both output a number plus test either configuration for memory errors.

But there are many more expert than I am in this area---so I am just giving you a place to start until you get a better answer.

 

[stevty2889]

What motherboard is it? Are you 100% sure it supports core 2 duo? The 865 chipset is pretty old..

 

[Denithor]

This is the motherboard, works great with an E4300 and at 800MHZ FSB even the integrated graphics port works. Runs like a champ out of the box, just trying to figure out which memory is going to give the best result. Will probably have to run a benchmark tonight to determine, I think anandtech usually runs unbuffered Sandra to see even little differences. I may also run superpi to see if there are any real differences not just in the benchies.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[btcomm1]

Do you guys really think pc 2100 dual channel would be good? I think you would benefit much more from pc3200 ram.

 

[jackschmittusa]

FSB (133/266) will be a bottleneck with PC2100.

 

[Denithor]

Well, I didn't run any benchmarks after all...I put in the PC2100 in dual channel and the system was noticeably more laggy than with the single stick of PC3200 (which was also CAS 2 versus CAS 3 for the 2xPC2100). Went back to the PC3200 and away we went, delivered last night and they are happy.

Thanks for the comments!

By the way, this Asus board was great to work with, if you need to recycle older parts you can use it to move to a C2D system on the cheap (about $235 total).