One stick or two?

[wombar]

Hi All,

I'm just about to buy a new machine and was hoping for some quick advice. I'm getting an Asus A8N SLi, a 3700+(san diego) and most likely 1Gb or RAM.

However, is there any advantage getting two sticks of RAM(2x512Mb) over a single stick of 1GB? I can afford the single stick but don't want to scupper performance.

Cheers all.

[skuzgib]

There will be a small performance increase if you run 2 sticks in dual channel, 10% at most.

[Firelord]

You will notice the diff between single and dual channel - trust me been there done that.

Are you likely to be ocing? If so grab 2*512s rather than the 1GB stick. Also go with the DFI solution Much better

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

I've just been investigating this. In my setup 1x1024 does pifast in 54.5s, 2x512 in 52.2. That gives the same performance increase as 3500 -> 3700 and it costs less.

[Nox]

Are you likely to be ocing? If so grab 2*512s rather than the 1GB stick.

I thought the opposite was correct? You have to balance the fact that 1 stick of memory will generally oc higher than 2 (with two you must stick to the lower speed chip) against the benefits from dual channel. If you're not overclocking, go dual channel. If you are, then its again, luck of the draw. I have two 1gb chips, 1 won't overclock by 1mhz, the other is fine up to over 240+ The system could only run at stock while the second chip was in. Bit unlucky wasn't I?

I don't know if its still true, but 6-12 months ago, the general consensus was go dual channel high fsb for Intel systems, and single chip low latencies for AMD, can anyone still confirm this?

Nox

[Firelord]

I thought the opposite was correct? You have to balance the fact that 1 stick of memory will generally oc higher than 2 (with two you must stick to the lower speed chip) against the benefits from dual channel.
Nox

1GB sticks are extremely dense in memory terms and because of this they are more difficult to OC.

They are ususally double sided and contain very large memory chips which is why they don't OC.

I have had 325MHz HTT 1:1 on 2*512MB sticks but as you say your struggling with 2*1GB sticks

[darrensen]

But wouldnt you rather have 4 GB of Ram clocked a little than 2 GB of Ram with more OC'ing??

[wombar]

Thanks a lot for the replies everyone.

I'm going for the ASUS because I have a few PCI cards I need to keep (TV cards etc) and most graphics cards overhang one of the PCI slots. In a worst case scenario I'm going to need 3 free slots so that board seems like a decent choice.

I won't be overclocking at all and I notice crucial has just bought out some matched stick options here http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/List...N%2DSLI+Deluxe

I'm thinking at the moment I'll go for the very top one(2 x 1Gb sticks) at £168.01. I have no idea whether they're matched or not, but this has got to be better than 1Gb of ballistix memory if I won't be overclocking.

What do you lot think?

Cheers

[Atomic]

2x 512MB is better (cheaper!)

[Firelord]

But wouldnt you rather have 4 GB of Ram clocked a little than 2 GB of Ram with more OC'ing??

No becuase I have no need for 4GB of RAM let alone 2GB! I would rather have 1GB that will do 260-270FSB for the extra bandwidth!

[Smokey21]

Definatly get 2 sticks of 512.

[wombar]

Thanks a lot everyone, I'm thinking the best option for me is to have 2x1Gb sticks of "normal" RAM. I won't be overclocking so I can't really see where the Ballistix stuff is going to be better for me. As long as there isn't a noticeable difference between the Ballistix and normal stuff, I think the more the better is probably best for me.

I do a fair bit of recording as well and the plugins and synths I use can be fairly RAM hungry.

Of course I'll be more than happy to hear any more opionions on this

[oralpain]

If you need the ram, you need the ram, everything else comes later. 2 gigs of ram at 200Mhz 3-3-3-8 will be a hell of alot faster than 1 gig of ram at 250Mhz 2-2-2-5, IF you are running stuff that uses 1.5 gigs of ram.

If you won't be using more than a gig of ram, then 2x512 is the way to go.

[StormPC]

If you need more than 1 GB then you probably need more than 2 GB, so you have the wrong platform. If you truly do things that require more than 1 GB then you probably need at least a dual CPU Opteron workstation with 4 GB RAM, because it means you are doing professional graphics or hi-res scans, or are working with huge data files and poorly written programs that require that all data be loaded at once, etc...GAMES NEVER REQUIRE MORE THAN 1 GB and usually will run at full speed with far less.

Dual channel will not be noticable in most situations. The exception is in memory benchmarks and benchmarks which move huge amounts of data into and out of memory. You wouldn't notice it at all in gaming and other applications. HOWEVER, why buy a S939 board over a S754 if you're only running single channel? You're better off with a S754 ClawHammer if you desire to run only 1 module.

[wombar]

Thanks again for the replies.

Although I do play games, this machine is primarily going to be used for recording music and graphics work(photoshop, illustrator etc). Some of the synths I run require quite a lot of memory especially some of the high quality samples of drums kits and pianos etc. I struggle at the moment with 512Mb of RAM at times, when you're dealing with 30+ tracks of WAV I'm guessing that having a fair bit of RAM can only be a good thing.

I was under the impression that S754 is basically being replaced and all the new processors(i.e. dual core) are going to be s939 only. I want something that I can gradually upgrade over the next few years as I've done with my current machine.

At the end of the day I'm trying to find the right balance between price/performance, I'm not doing super hardcore processing 24 hours a day, but I need something with a bit of grunt when I need it.

Cheers all.

[Firelord]

s754 is not going to be replaced; it is a more budget orientated platform ie the new AXP with the semprons