Dual channel or one faster chip?

[mrziggz]

Right now I'm looking into replacing the 2gb of ddr2 in my older gateway because It's been giving me some trouble and I have a question.

My mobo supports Dual Channel but would it be faster to go with 2 1gb chips that are pc2-5300 or one 2gb chip that is pc2-6400? The 2gb chip is a little bit cheaper and im trying to get out of this as cheap as possible but weighing the speed factor.

Thank you for your help.

 

[rolli59]

Dual channel is a little bit faster measurable but hardly noticeable!

 

[makwy2]

Right now I'm looking into replacing the 2gb of ddr2 in my older gateway because It's been giving me some trouble and I have a question.

My mobo supports Dual Channel but would it be faster to go with 2 1gb chips that are pc2-5300 or one 2gb chip that is pc2-6400? The 2gb chip is a little bit cheaper and im trying to get out of this as cheap as possible but weighing the speed factor.

Thank you for your help.

I would usually agree with rolli but I would just ask one more little question: what do you plan on doing with this computer? When you say trouble are you talking about gaming, overclocking, massive computation....? Depending on your target you might find the cheaper option the less desirable.

 

[mrziggz]

This is a Gateway that I've had for like 2-3 years. Ive used it for gaming(mosly mmo) and general web/video watching. I just built a new computer(my first time) so the gateway isn't as important but I want to address the memory problem I had before I sell or give it away.

To be specific, there have been a couple times where the computer wouldnt boot. I was getting no display and the beep codes indicated a memory error of some kind. I removed both 1gb chips and put them in different slots and it booted up fine. It did this to me once a year and a half or so ago and it just did it again the other day. At first I thought it was a bad slot but since I've moved them twice now I'm thinking its a bad chip and I can replace both with a 2gb chip for just under $30.

I don't overclock and its the original memory that came with the computer when I bought it.

Do you think the problem could be something else? Like I said it's working fine now but I don't want to sell or give it away to someone and have it crap out on them when they try to turn it on.

Thanks

 

[makwy2]

In that case I would say go for the cheaper 2gb module. If I were you I would run memtest for at least 4 hrs to make sure the memory is good then close up the case and call it good!

http://www.memtest86.com/