System Memory (1gb sticks)

[KiNG]

i recently was buying memory for a friend and i i noticed 1gb sticks of memory. funny thing was i didnt see any customer reviews or anything. so naturally im curious if there is anything bad or slow or whatever about these things or is it just better to have 2 512 sticks for the dual config thing im amateur

 

[SidewinderX]

Well, some mobos don't support 2GB of RAM (most do though)

However, they usally have the worst timings of ram, cause the sticks have to be dual sided. They usally also odn't have the best chips on them.... manufacturers save those for other sticks.

 

[ailevation]

:dozey: I think it's better to have 2x 512 sticks in dual mode rather than 1 Gig in single. But 2x 1 Gig sticks is a plus.

 

[blahblahblah]

The first thing is to find out if the motherboard has dual channel support. If it does, that means you will want two sticks of RAM placed in the first and third RAM slots to automatically enable it. The benefit is increased memory bandwith that goes from 3.2 GB/s (DDR 400) to 6.4 GB/s (DDR 400 dual channel). This benefit will be noticed more on Intel systems which are addicted to memory bandwith. This is less so on Athlon systems.

As for sticks a 1GB of RAM. There will be a slight (it is really very small) performance hit if your friend choose the 1 GB stick over the 2 sticks of 512. More importantly, he will loose the benefits of dual channel if he buys the stick of 1 GB (if his motherboards supports dual channel). If he bought 2, 1 GB sticks, he would regain dual channel capabilities.

Unless the 1 GB stick is much cheaper than 2 sticks of 512 MB, I would recommend getting 2 sticks of 512.

Also, make sure his motherboard supports 1 GB sticks of RAM. There are several motherboards that only support 512 MB sticks of RAM.

 

[Hazar]

. . placed in the first and third RAM slots to automatically enable it.

why not in the first and second slots?

 

[blahblahblah]

why not in the first and second slots?

Because it doesn't enable dual channel.

 

[Asus]

Because with dual channel memory the first 2 slots go to the first controller. Same with the remained paired slots. If you put the memory in the first 2 slots then it would run as single channel memory.

 

[ailevation]

:dozey: Does it always have to be the 1st and 3rd? Would if you have 4 sticks and you want to go Dual mode, with 4 slots?

 

[blahblahblah]

You can go into dual channel mode with 3 slots as long as you have RAM present in those three slots.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, they would need to add up to the same though.
2x256mb (slot1+2)and 1x512mb (slot3)
That would work in dual channel memory mode.

With 4 slots you just need matching pairs again.

 

[blahblahblah]

Really? I have never heard of a limitation like that before. Make sense though.

 

[Sedako]

Do 2 DIMM mobos support dual channel? And how do I figure out if my mobo does?

 

[Asus]

Probably not unless it's an HP,Compaq or Dell. They like to give you less memory slots yet they may still support dual channel memory.
Read the manual or go to the manufacture's website.

 

[Sedako]

Yeah, mines an HP. Unfortunately, the manual they gave me doesn't really cover the mobo, and i've checked on the site, but I couldn't find anything.