which is better?

[knockout34]

is 4x512mb ram sticks better than 2x1gb sticks?

 

[dave597]

depnds, i would go for 2 1 gig chips since they take up less ram slots

 

[StrangleHold]

I would use 2 1gb, plus its easier to up grade, your slots are not full

 

[knockout34]

but which would give better performance?

 

[Burgerbob]

4X512 is better for performance.

 

[Jet]

why 4x512? I'd say 2x1 since the northbridge has less to deal with.

 

[knockout34]

4X512 is better for performance.

ok thx

 

[Geoff]

4X512 is better for performance.

It depends on the motherboard/cpu combo. However generally speaking, for newer motherboards, 2x 1GB is better since they can run in 1T mode, vs 4x 512MB which runs in 2T mode.

So in most cases, 2x 1GB will be the best for both performance, and upgradability.

 

[lethalforce]

4X512 can run in dual channel mode so its faster

 

[Impr3ssiv3]

4X512 can run in dual channel mode so its faster

so can 2x1gb

and if you have too many sticks in their its not always best because your northbridge and send data to all of them quick enough for best performance


2x1gb would be better

get some nice fast low latency ones

 

[knockout34]

what about 4x1gb sticks with two 2.0 ghz dual core xeon processors. would that be good?

 

[aspire]

that might be too much for your mobo to handle... i would stick to 2x1gb get overclocking/dualchannel ram

 

[aspire]

how much money are u willing to spend?

 

[Jet]

It depends on the motherboard/cpu combo. However generally speaking, for newer motherboards, 2x 1GB is better since they can run in 1T mode, vs 4x 512MB which runs in 2T mode.

So in most cases, 2x 1GB will be the best for both performance, and upgradability.

I knew there was something like that (In otherwords, that was what I was trying to get at)

 

[Geoff]

4X512 can run in dual channel mode so its faster

2x1GB and 4x512MB can run in dual-channel modes. However, having all 4 slots filled will increase the latencies as well as possible reducing the memory speed, since with some mobo's, if you use all the slots they will reduce to a speed lower then what it's rated for.

 

[lethalforce]

aye

 

[34erd]

Honestly the performance difference isn't really noticable. The biggest difference is upgradibility, and that 512 mb modules used to be significantly faster. Also, like omega said, 4 souble sided DIMMS would force 2T on some platforms, although socket 939 suffered from the command rate the most.

 

[SirKenin]

It has been shown through benchmarks (if you need them I can provide the link) that 4x512MB is actually faster than 2x1GB. Not by much, but if you care about numbers then go with 4 sticks.

The problem is that you will never notice the difference in actual performance and you've filled up all 4 slots. Personally I would just stick to the 2x1GB so you can add more in the future if you need to.

 

[mrjack]

Usually when having 4 RAM sticks installed causes the motherboard to go from 400MHz DDR to 333MHz DDR.

 

[34erd]

Usually when having 4 RAM sticks installed causes the motherboard to go from 400MHz DDR to 333MHz DDR.

Wasn't that was only with socket 754?