4GB of Ram or go with 2GB?

[Prez]

Ok I have been researching into building a system. I will game on it and use it for web/graphic design.

I am going with:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model
SUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
2 6800GT cards running in SLI mode

Now should I go with 4GB of Ram or 2Gb of ram? If I go with 2GB should I get it in 4 dimms or 2? I am a bit confused that if I go with only 2GB that each core of the processor would only have 1GB and if I went with 4GB each core would have 2GB. Is that how this would work or am I way off base? I want to be able to build this system and not have to touch it for a couple years except for maybe chnage a processor when the toledos come down in price.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

2x1024MB is better. 4GB right now is overkill.

The processor can divide tasks between multiple cores, however,the memory is not divided between cores (I think)

<font color=blue>******
<font color=green>"My Memory is not working today"
<font color=blue>AIM SoCaliCrowley

 

[dhlucke]

Overkill to go with 4GB now. It's an easy upgrade. Do it later.

<font color=red><b>Long live Dhanity and the minions scouring the depths of Wingdingium!

 

[Prez]

Ok I just thought since 2 of the ram sockets on the board where black and 2 where blue that it was divided up between cores.

I will go with just the 2GB for now. I can always add more in the future when RAM is even cheaper then. Maybe when the Toledos come down in price I will do that and the more RAM. Always other options i guess. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[BrentUnitedMem]

The memory modules are split between two memory-channels. Instead of 64-bits for a single channel the memory bandwidth is doubled to 128-bits.

In your case, 1GB goes in the first BLUE-socket. And the second 1GB stick goes in the first BLACK-socket.

<font color=blue>******
<font color=green>"My Memory is not working today"
<font color=blue>AIM SoCaliCrowley

 

[Prez]

Thats a ton for the tips guys and to you wusy for the GPU information. I looked into it for a bit and you are ver right. that 7800GTX is a mean card. I went with one of those instead of two 6800GT,s. In the future I can always ad another 7800GTX if things fall behind.