Questions about memories and Dual Channel...

Franklogus

Member
Jul 8, 2004
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Hi all !
I am intending to increase the amount of memory of my back-up PC, and I have two questions (sorry if the questions are really basic, but I am far from to be an expert on these matters?)

I have one back-up PC with the following spec:
Processor ? P4 2.8 GHZ 533 Mhz
MoBo ? Asus P4SDX
Memory: 512 MB of Kingston DDR333 (Model KVR333X64C25) (2 sticks with 256 MB)
Video Card ? Gigabyte Radeon 9600XT
Storage ? Main HDD ? Maxtor 120 GB ATA 133, 8 MB Cache, 7200 rpm
- Slave HDD ? Seagate 40 GB ATA 100, 2 MB Cache, 7200 rpm
Midia: 01 Drive of CDR-W (LG) & 01 Drive of DVD (LG).

When I run some games that I like (mainly racing games), in some circumstances, the physical memory available reach the bottom line (around 15-20 MB). So, I think I can to deduce that my system has a bottleneck there?
I would like to buy more 02 sticks of 128 MB (so, my system would have 756 MB), and the memory should be from the same brand and specification. But, unfortunately, I could not to find it, so far? It seems very difficult to find here (in Brazil), these brand/specification with stick of 128mb? So, my questions are:
1) I need, necessarily, to buy new sticks of the same brand/specification? Of course, it would be the ideal, but, if I will not find it, would have some problem if I install new sticks of another brand (paying attention with the latencies of it)?
2) In order to maintain the Dual Channel working well, I need, necessarily, have more 2 NEW sticks of the same size (MB)? For example, currently, I have 02 sticks of 256 MB (total amount of 512 MB). Which would be the difference if I install ONE single stick more (same brand/specification), with 256 MB or if I install TWO new sticks (same brand/specification) of 128 MB each one? Would the first act (one single stick of 256 MB) to damage the POTENTIAL performance of my system (comparing to the situation in which I would install 02 sticks of 128 MB)? Would this single stick not to work with Dual Channel enabled?

Recently, I have changed, via BIOS, the latencies of my memories from default (2.5-3-3-7) to (2-2-2-6), and I felt that my system had a slight gain of performance (better results with 3Dmark_2001, PCMark_2002 and 3Dmark_2003). The system seems very stable (no problem so far); so, I would like to ask, too, if there is some risk if I maintain my memories with these more aggressive latencies? Is there?

Well, that´s it ? Thanks in advance for any information!
 

imported_michaelpatrick33

Platinum Member
Jun 19, 2004
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Do not install one more stick for that will kill dual channel. If you have all four dimms filled you will probably have to lower timings to a degree for stability. I am not as familiar with Intel products but you might be better off get a cheap pair of 512 DDR 400 memory modules (they can work at PC2700 which is DDR333) and simply sell your existing memory. 1 gig will be plenty for what you are doing and you can still use good timings becuase you only have two dimms. Also you can probably then safely overclock some your 2.8 and not run into memory problems at 1:1