adding some ram

[1234321]

Ok so i hvae 1 GB(2x512) of ram in my computer and there is 4 slots, i want to upgrade to 1 GB but someone told me that using all your slots will mean that the ream wont run in dual channel anymore, so would i still get a performance boost if i have 4x512 instead of 2x1 gb ?

[Dannik]

Please post which make/model of motherboard you have. With that information, it should be easy to determine if your system will run dual channel with four slots loaded.

[1234321]

MSI K8N Neo4, it is nForce 4

Edited April 23, 2006 by 1234321

[Dannik]

Ok, I pulled up the manual, so here's the verdict.

You can fill all four slots with RAM, and operate in dual channel mode, but there are some restrictions:

First, all four memory modules must be absolutely identical in spec. Same brand/model/timing is in your best interest. Non-matched sticks will work, but dual channel mode will not engage.

Also, if you fill all four slots with DIMMs (dual sided memory modules) the memory bus will only operate at DDR333 speed. Using SIMMs (single sided) will let you run at the full DDR400, but SIMMs are hard to find, and particularly in large memory sizes.

EDIT: Although you indicate you are going for 2 gigs total, just for the record, you could put four 1 gig sticks in, for a total of 4 gigs of RAM... but doing so will cause the system to report 3+ gigs. This is a quirk of southbridge architecture, and not an error.

[1234321]

thanks for your response, so do you think i will get a big benifit from having 4x512 over just 2x512, of if it runs at ddr333 will i not see much of an improvement?

[Dannik]

Complex question.

One way to look at it is if you increase to 2 gigs of RAM, you'll have twice as much active memory, but it will be running 17% slower.

Your memory access times will slightly suffer, but you gain the advantage of much less paging to hard drive/memory allocation thrashing.

If you wanted the best of both worlds, I'd suggest removing your existing sticks and replacing them with 2x1024 DDR400. You'll get 2 gigs, AND dual channel @ DDR400. It would be more expensive, and you'd be left with a pair of sticks you weren't using, but if it's viable, it would probably be the best combination for performance.

[tangovictor]

Complex question.

One way to look at it is if you increase to 2 gigs of RAM, you'll have twice as much active memory, but it will be running 17% slower.

Your memory access times will slightly suffer, but you gain the advantage of much less paging to hard drive/memory allocation thrashing.

If you wanted the best of both worlds, I'd suggest removing your existing sticks and replacing them with 2x1024 DDR400.  You'll get 2 gigs, AND dual channel @ DDR400.  It would be more expensive, and you'd be left with a pair of sticks you weren't using, but if it's viable, it would probably be the best combination for performance.

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I am facing the same situation... and i've concluded that sometimes less is more... more or less.

anyone wanna buy 2x512 of corsair XMS matched platinum series DDR400? I can only run 2 out of my 3 slots in dual channel and need to upgrade to 2x1 Gig.

look! a bargain on newegg - $50 rebate too! $138 for 2 gig.

Newegg Corsair XMS 2 gig Ram

Edited April 24, 2006 by tangovictor