Question on NForce2 boards

[alchemize]

Do Nforce2 boards work with non-paired RAM (i.e. a 256MB chip and a 512MB chip)? I'm assuming they still do...

IF so, what is the performance impact of not having paired RAM? I don't want to toss out my 512MB chip or buy another But I really want to overclock my 1700+

Should I just stick with my Gigabyte 7DXR+ for a while? Can I unlock the multipliers with this board? I seem to remember reading only Nforce2's can do that...other than the manual "pencil" method.

 

[SpideyCU]

Yes, they work without paired RAM sticks.

Performance impact is minimal, IMO you don't need to worry about it if you're planning on purchasing an NF2 board. Yes, you get better performance from running it dual channel, and people will argue 'til their blue in the face about how much of a bonus you get, or if it's worth it, but the bottom line is that the NF2 is no slouch with a single stick of memory.

 

[alchemize]

Thanks for the answers Now for the more opinion based one...

Should I just sit tight with the Gigabyte board? NForce2's still seem pretty fresh...will my performance increase be that big (i.e. more than 10-15%)? Or are we talking a minor increase and most of the boost will come from the new processor?

 

[SpideyCU]

I can't say for sure, though, interestingly enough, I went to a similar jump (my Epox 8K7A+, which was also an AMD 761/VIA 686B hybrid chipset, was my board before the EPoX 8RDA+, the nForce2). Unfortunately I went from a 1.2 GHz Thunderbird in the old motherboard to a 1600+ Palomino in the new one, so, I can't give you an accurate gauge of the difference just the motherboard would give.

IIRC, VIA's KT266 was a moderately better performer than the 761/686B hydrib (once they got it right anyhow ), and since the nForce2 is a moderately better performer than the KT333/400 series, perhaps 10-15% or more isn't a completely baseless assumption. Just my opinion, of course, nothing more.