RAM: 2x1GB vs 4x512MB (both dual channel)

[catpants]

Building a new comp and wondering which ram configuration would provide better performance. Since this is going to be more or less a budget system, I probably won't have need to expand to a full 4GB in the future.

 

[paulw86]

If you MUST get 2GBs of ram, 2x1GB sticks will be your best bet. 4x 512mb sticks lowers performance.

 

[MrDudeMan]

2x1gb should run them faster, but i really think either way would be good considering 2gb of ram would help a lot.

 

[Geomagick]

This should answer all your questions about this topic.

This is an excellent article on using 2 or 4 dimms in an Athlon 64 system.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: paulw86
If you MUST get 2GBs of ram, 2x1GB sticks will be your best bet. 4x 512mb sticks lowers performance.

Depends. If you have 4 x 512mb sticks of say OCZ VX, I have seen people run 4 x BH-5s at 255 FSB, 2-2-2-5. That will kick the crap out of 2.5-3-6 2 x 1gb at 230.

 

[Jiggz]

If you are comparing apples against apples, and not comparing apples with oranges then 2 1GB sticks is a better option since it has lower latency compare to 4 512MB sticks of the same speed. Since 1 GB has not reached their max latency speed compare to 512 MB sticks, sometimes 4-512 MB sticks will beat 1GB sticks even with increase latency when using 4 sticks.

 

[Kenazo]

For the potential upgrade path I'd go w/ the 2x1gb, but if you're paying a hefty premium for the 1gb sticks I wouldn't bother.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: paulw86
If you MUST get 2GBs of ram, 2x1GB sticks will be your best bet. 4x 512mb sticks lowers performance.

Depends. If you have 4 x 512mb sticks of say OCZ VX, I have seen people run 4 x BH-5s at 255 FSB, 2-2-2-5. That will kick the crap out of 2.5-3-6 2 x 1gb at 230.

good luck getting BH5 to run at 255..I realize some do but not all

also whe nrunning 4 sticks you will need to run 2T not 1T

also the improvements with tighter memory timings have been shown to minimal and not worth the concern

I would go 2x 1gb...I bought 2 x 1gb crucial valuram back 2-3 months ago for $220 shipped...my ram runs @250mhz 3-3-3-7-1T.....yes cas 2.5 or 2 is faster but I doubt you could tell..I am very happy

 

[ribbon13]

For a new budget machine 2x1GB DDR400 for $213 is the only way to go.

And the comments section on this ram is awesome. Don't you just love how the more popular newegg gets, the more stupid the reviews become?

Originally posted by: some idiot on newegg
These sticks were not stable in my Chaintech SKT600 board. I blame Chaintech more for that than gigaram: The BIOS does not offer 3T for the all-important command setting, and things actually got _worse_ when going from CAS 2.5 to CAS 3.

The memory was stable in an NForce2-Ultra board.