Dual Channel or 2.5Gig?

K3rupt

K3rupt

New Member
Hey all.

I'm trying too decide what is better too do.

Run 1Gb Of Dual Channel Ram (2 x 512mb)

OR

Run 2.5 Gig of Single Channel Ram

The 2 x 512 Ram +
1 x 512 Ram +
1 x 1Gb Ram Stick

I am Running Vista.

Ta, K3
 
The best way to run a board in the dual channel mode is to run identical dimms. For 512s that would be a pair of those. For 2gg you would run a pair of 1gb dimms. This is what the experts advise for this. With mixed sixes there you would most likely end up in the single channel mode.
 
PC eye said:
The best way to run a board in the dual channel mode is to run identical dimms. For 512s that would be a pair of those. For 2gg you would run a pair of 1gb dimms. This is what the experts advise for this. With mixed sixes there you would most likely end up in the single channel mode.
Click to expand...

Yea, I know im going too end up in Single Channel if i do it.

The 2 x 512Mb sticks in atm are identical Dimms.

I was just wondering if i would Benefit from An Extra 1.5 Gig.
 
The real gain would come from seeing a good matched pair of 1gb dimms over mixing 512s if they were made by different companies and are different types to consider. If one or more of those is single sided memory dump it! That will automatically clash with the dual sided dimms. The Cas Latency of the memory for each dimm is another thing to be looking at as well. Mixing any performance memory with value ram will spell trouble from the start. You haven't told us if the memory is all by the same brand or mixed.
 
PC eye, I think everyone, including the OP knows that the best option would be to buy more RAM and run in dual channel.

To answer the question he actually asked...I would think the 2.5 Gig would be better. Maybe. I'm using Vista Home Premium w/ 2 gigs, and routinely run around 48% memory usage just having a few browser windows open and a few poker games running.

If you did anything memory intensive at all, you would start hitting the disk cache at 1GB, and we all now how much that sucks.
 
Hmm. AFAIK dual channel mode is useful but it wouldn't increase performance nearly as much as the extra 1.5Gb of RAM
 
Dual channel RAM will gives u about 4 - 10 % boost on the memory and system performance like games and 2 - 5 % on applications like OS.

And also try to put always simmilar RAM modules (don't put 2 different RAM modules from 2 diferent manufacturies).

I would put 1 GB sell 1.5 GB and buy another 1 GB which would be the same as the first one.
 
I would run it at 2.5Gig temporary until you get around to buying another 1Gig stick and run it at 3Gig (get rid of a 512m stick) and in dual channel.
 
salman said:
I would run it at 2.5Gig temporary until you get around to buying another 1Gig stick and run it at 3Gig (get rid of a 512m stick) and in dual channel.
Click to expand...

3GB wouldnt run in dual-channel either.

Personally I would go with the 2GB, simply because I dont use more then that, so the extra speed benefits me more.
 
A system always runs the best when the dimms used are matched even by brand as well as size, type, and speed. The best is seen when going with dimms from the same manufacturer's batch let alone going with a pretested pair. A good pair of 1gb Kingston Hyper X DDR2 800 will go great on the new build in the worrks here. :D
 
Alot of Mixed Decisions Here.

Ok,

D.S = Dual Sided With Chips
S.S = Single Side has The Chips On It

The Ram:

Currently In computer =

TwinMOS PC3200 512MB DDR-DIMM
TwinMOS PC3200 512MB DDR-DIMM

Currently On My Desk (contemplating weather i should install)

TwinMOS PC3200(CL3) 1GB DDR-DIMM (D.S)

OCZ PC3200 512MB Dual Channel Ready Premier Series 2.5-3-3-7 (Has a Heatsink Round It) (D.S)

Also (here it gets good)

VData DDR400 512MB (S.S)
Kingston 512MB 2.6V (S.S)
Corsair Value Select 512MB DDR400 (D.S)

Suggestions Now?

Thanks,
 
I haven't seen Vista use over 2GB yet.

Sell your surplus RAM unless you plan on building another box.

Get a matched pair of 1 GB sticks.
 
You have a quite a mix up there alright. The statement by lhoney2 just about sums it up there. If you bought a second dimm identical to the first 1gb dimm by the same brand and type/speed(PC 3200 DDR400) you could get away with the first. Going for a matched pair of 1gb dimms by a good brand will see the best results. 2gb of Corsair or Kingston value ram would work out there quite well.

The only time you would actually see a need for more then 2gb on a desktop would be for running CAD or some other engineering program or huge memory hungry programming. The software market if full of games and desktop apps that require far less like 256 to 512mb.
 
The dual channel capabilty depends on the board. On older models having all slots filled would force single channel mode on many models. Location of the first slot for each channel will vary as well. The jpg here will show how it appears dimm slots #1 + #2 are the ones used to enable the dual channel mode.

 
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