4x512 or 2x1gb for new ram

[kinnth]

I have an asus p5n-e sli which has 4 slots for ram, both twin linked. Now at the moment i have 4x1gb unbranded pc6400 800mhz ddr2 in there but really nothing i use maxes over a gb so im thinking of selling them up and investing in 2gb of pc8500.

I was wondering though, would it be better to get 2x 1gb or 4x 512mb of pc8500 ? Is there any difference in performance / heat / price?

[Webby]

2 sticks would generally be cheeper than 4 but I wont swear to it after all it will depend entirely on what you get, and obviously only having 2 means that if you want to get another 2 in the future you can without having to get rid of anything.

I would also expect that 2 sticks of RAM will produce less heat than 4.

So all in all personally I would go for 2 larger sticks over 4 smaller ones.

[kinnth]

cool, well i was thinking that too just wanted some confirmation before i bought it. With pc 8500 i see it runs at 1066 but only if your motherboard supports it. I think that currently my motherboard only supports 800mhz, so would the memory just drop to that?

If I were to buy a new motherboard what is it like to transfer into a working computer? Would i need to reinstall windows or could i just unplug and plug back in and with a few driver installs get it back up and running again?

[Webby]

Personally if you are going to get a new motherboard I would reinstall windows it will probably save a lot of hassle in the long run.

As to the memory it will run at whatever speed you tell it to in your BIOS if the max is 800 though then that will potentially be the most you can get but you could potentially lower the timings to get better performance.

See this article on overclocking here on Hexus which will give you a bit more info on how to do it. Overclocking guide