Well if they are all the same brand, same speed, and your mobo support dual channel RAM then 512MBx4.
But if you plan to upgrade the RAM in the next year or so then you might want to go with 1GBx2 so you can just double that.![]()
well im building my first comp and all i need is 2gb of ram and i was just going to buy two packs of these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144020
Having gone from two 512s to a pair of 1gb dimms I would have to point at the pair of 1gb dimms as the best option overall. There is less dimm hopping and one old problem of memory holes when a smaller dimm fills and data has to jump over between the next dimm on the same channel. A matched pair of 1gb dimms would see a performance gain there since data will flow more evenly. Plus an additional pair of 1gb dimms would give you 4gb instead of 2gb total if you run programs like CAD, graphics design, or any memory hungry large apps. For the average user and gamer alike 2gb usually works well.
The memory there will go right on. But you will pay a little more for the memory by buying the dimms separately. You want a 2gb kit with 2 identical 1gb dimms rather then being charged for the individual price. Plus those will be much closer matched being from the same batch. It sounds like the board there won't run memory with the faster 4-4-4 and 3-3-3 timings. The 12 won't hurt anything since that brings the memory invetween the 5-5-5 and 6-6-6 required timings there.