Four or two sticks???

[grazhopper]

Right now I have two 512MB sticks of RAM and Im lookin to upgrade to 4 gigs. I heard from my friend that it isnt very effective to have four sticks of RAM. Although I am willing to buy just a 2 gig set of two sticks, I would like to save the money. Does having four sticks of 512MB have any negative effects??

 

[Geoff]

Two sticks of the same size would be better. But you really dont need 4GB, 2GB is more than enough.

 

[PC eye]

Apparently you started two identical threads. I'll simply repost:
For dual channel mode you would see better performance with a pair of 2gb not four 512mb dimms due to what is referred to as "memory holes" where the first fills fast to bleed over to the next. For a better understanding on that review the article seen at: http://xtronics.com/memory/how_memory-works.htm first posted at: http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=43976

 

[computerhakk]

Get the two sticks.. and make sure your motherboard supports 2gb. I don't know your motherboard specifically, so if you did know, then disregard it.. if you didn't then you should check.

Plus, having two sticks and two empty slots open up for future upgrades in case you may need it.

 

[mrjack]

Two memory sticks are usually recommended cause

a. you can run them in Dual channel mode, which basically means that instead of the memory sending data 64-bits per cycle it sends 128-bits. Not completely sure that but thats how I understand all the text I've read so far.

b. some motherboards make the memory run at a lower clock speed if all slots are used.

 

[Dr Studly]

ok, get 2 one gigs... or get 4 one gigs...
either one would be nice

 

[ChrisHarris]

It sounds to me like you have 4 slots in the motherboard.

You stated that you didn't want to spend too much money. You wanted to "save the money".

You've already got 2 sticks 512MB. So, get 2 more sticks of 512MB and stick them in the empty slots.

That will give you jst a little over 2GB of ram. Thats how I'm running my rig, and I don't have any problems. I play Counter Strike, Halo, 1/2 Life, etc. I work my rig pretty hard with some of the games and video editing that I do, and it never complains.

My MB has dual channel capability. Most modern MBs do.

Get 2 more 512MB sticks and stick 'em in there. 2+GB is a buttload of ram, and you'll have a hard time maxing it out.

 

[Dr Studly]

with all 4 slots filled it performs faster, and 4 sticks of 512 is less upgradable...and technically a 2gb stick is 2048MB, and a 1gb stick is 1024... so itsn't like 4 512s is more...

 

[grazhopper]

Alright I decided to buy two more sticks of 512MB which will bump me up to 2GB. As of now I am planning on just buying 2 more of the kind of sticks I have right now, just to make things easy. But if someone has a better Idea of which kind of memory stick I should use I'm be open for suggestions.

Here's the RAM I have now...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227220

 

[jancz3rt]

Heya

4 512MB sticks should do the trick. The lack of upgradability in the future is not an issue. By the time this PC will become obsolete, there will be no reason to upgrade Some older A64s for example had issues with all slots being filled and could have problems running @ 200Mhz (400DDR). New revisions like the San Diego you have don't have the problem.

P.S.: I have an Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.53Ghz and memory @ 420Mhz DDR. However, the memory controller (already under stress due to OCing) does not like anything above this.

JAN