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Dual Channel or just one stick?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - Dual Channel or just one stick?

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johaness9   11-25-2006 at 01:22:52 AM

I recently read on some product reviews that 2 sticks of RAM in dual channel is faster than just 1 stick.
I am looking for a 1 gig RAM and was wondering if I should get 1 stick of 1 gig or 2 sticks of 512mb? How much faster/better is using dual channel with 2 sticks of 512 if at all? Does it really make much of a difference?

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Mondoman   11-26-2006 at 04:11:34 AM
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You want to get pairs of modules so you can run in dual-channel mode. This may help explain:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/har [...] 30#1233230

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reader850   11-26-2006 at 05:03:45 AM
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Dual channel is better, but I would get a single one gig stick now and add another gig in February or whenever the price of memory comes down.

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yas   11-27-2006 at 01:41:21 PM
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Quote :

Dual channel is better, but I would get a single one gig stick now and add another gig in February or whenever the price of memory comes down.



what he said :!:

get one stick now then another later but the same brand if possible.

Reply to yas
Mondoman   11-28-2006 at 09:12:14 PM
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And if the price of RAM doesn't drop for another 6 months or a year, you just suffer. I don't believe in suffering. :wink:

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rdhood   11-28-2006 at 11:46:34 PM
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Quote :

And if the price of RAM doesn't drop for another 6 months or a year, you just suffer. I don't believe in suffering. :wink:



Yeah. Those extra microseconds of waiting are pure h***.

Seriously... dual channel works best with a pair of the same type of good memory. The problem with going with two 512 is that you may want to upgrade to more than a GIG in the future (think "Vista" ). Then, you have to toss your 512 sticks and get a pair of 1gb sticks. Unless you are benchmarking, you will generally NOT detect any difference in performance between single/dual channel, but you may want to keep your upgrade options open, so go for the single GB stick now.

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Mondoman   11-29-2006 at 11:59:13 PM
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Quote :

... The problem with going with two 512 is that you may want to upgrade to more than a GIG in the future (think "Vista" ). Then, you have to toss your 512 sticks and get a pair of 1gb sticks. ....


No, you just buy a pair of 1GB or 2GB sticks and put them in the other two slots (unless you have an el cheapo MB with only 2 DIMM slots, in which case you're right).

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