some AMD ram questions

[kugelfang]

alright, i have an amd x2 5200 on an OEM non-overclockable ASUS nforce4 motherboard

i was thinking of dumping the x2 5200 for a 6400 and adding more 533 mhz ram when i heard that if i go from 533 to 800 mhz ram on an AMD system it will make worlds of difference (10% gaming performance increase)

if that is true (is it true?) i can just buy some dirt cheap ddr2-800 quality ram and wait for a 3ghz phenom

and another question

i have 4 slots, dual channel capable - iv heard AMD systems dont respond well to having all 4 slots filled up, but iv also heard that not using dual channel affects performance 2 - i can only have 3 gb of ram, so 2x1gb in dual channel, and either 2x512 in dual channel or just 1 extra gig - will dual channel overcome the performance deficit of having all 4 slots occupied? thanks alot

also, will good quality 800mhz ram as opposed to generic 533 stuff in my pc make my system better overall?

thanks guys!

 

[akhilles]

Since you're not overclocking, it won't make a world of difference. Yes, AM2 seems to be faster at memory benchmarks.

On nForce4, 4 sticks of ram may spell disaster - no post. At least, that's my experience. If you must get 4 sticks, get single-sided ones.

IMO, you should start saving up right now cuz AMD already released 9600 & is said to be on schedule to release better Phenoms come Q1/08. 2007 was a disaster for AMD. 2008 may be not.

 

[shadowmaster625]

you dont want to run in single channel mode even if it gives you more capacity. If I had two 256MB sticks and one 1 gig stick, I would go with the two 256s and leave out the 1 gig stick. The worst that can happen is you'll need to reboot more often and clean out some of the crap that runs at startup.

 

[kugelfang]

so is 2gb 800mhz enough? if i say got some OCZ SLI memory? (i wanna SLI-theme my computer)

i dont really need the 3 do i?

 

[akhilles]

The thing is that a typical mobo will see up to 800mhz ram. Anything beyond must be set in bios. I assume you don't want to.

 

[dwthor02]

from my experience the asus boards are picky when it comes to memory. my asus m2n-32sli deluxe seems to like corsair just fine.