RAM. 2x or 1x?

[imported_etherealraven]

Sorry if my first post being a question is noobish.. also, I didn't see a forum dedicated to RAM, so I posted here. Mods, if that's a problem, I'll follow it if you move it.

This is just a simple question.

What's the point of having two 512 MB sticks to make 1GB? I always see rigs set up with two identical sticks, whether they were purchased as a two-piece kit or not, but it just seems that having one 1GB stick is frowned upon versus having two 512MB sticks. Why is that? Can you guys explain what the importance is, if any, of having two sticks instead of one?

 

[ofiraltarasy]

because of dual chanel your ram will work together making them run faster

 

[deadmantyping]

identical sticks are for dual channel. I dont know that 2x512mb is better than 1x1gb, i prefer 2x1gb myself.

 

[Some1ne]

2x512 MB lets you do dual-channel. Also, timings on 512 MB modules are typically a bit lower than on 1 GB modules, so between these two things, running 2x512 MB gives a bit of a performance advantage over 1x1 GB.

The benefit of going 1x1 GB is that it makes it much easier to upgrade to 2 GB of RAM in the future (running 4x512 MB, on an AMD64 setup at least, is not recommended for a number of reasons).

 

[daftpunkit]

timings are higher on 1x1GB vs 2x512MB.