Would I still get higher latencies with 1.5 gb ram?

[XionNova]

Hi. I have a question. It might have been asked before, but I sure couldn't find an answer with the search button...

I've read that with an A64, if you have all 4 DIMMs filled, you get higher latencies. What I can't seem to find is if you just have 3 DIMMs filled, do you still get the higher latencies? And also... how much of a difference would the higher latency make?

This is my first computer build (yay for newbs...). here's the specs in case you care.

THERMALTAKE Silent Purepower W0014RU ATX 480W
SOLTEK SL-K890Pro-939
Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester
CHAINTECH Geforce 6600GT PCI-e
1.5 GB PQI POWER Series DDR400 (3x512mb)
Samsung 120 GB IDE 7200RPM HDD
Audigy2 ZS

The reason I got 1.5 GB of the stuff is because I'm building this computer in part for my job, and my boss reccommended 1.5 to 2 GB. And in part for me to play HL2 and WoW on. =)

I geuss it's rather pointless for me to be asking this question, seeing how I ordered it 2 days ago... lol. But I just want to know what to expect ahead of time.

 

[fstime]

Do you mean would it run in IT with 3 sticks?

Yes, I believe so,

As for latencies it depends on the ram. Usualy value ram's latencies are fine.

You dont need more then 1 gb, you will never use it all.

 

[XionNova]

Yeah, I've heard conflicting views on how much ram 'is needed' But hey, ram is so cheap... at $37.50 for 512MB, I just decided to get another stick. Btw, here's the ram http://www2.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820141164

So the latency/1T penalty only applies when you have all DIMMs filled? Is that correct?