What do you feel is better? 1 Stick or 2?

Shadow ÒÓ · Oct 30, 2002

for instance.....to obtain 512 megs of memory......a single stick of 512 or dual 256'ers?

Why?

FarEast · Oct 30, 2002

One stick...only by three or 4 shakes though

I tested for this and the differnece when using same brand same sizes. You can't tell

SlowBurn · Oct 30, 2002

1 Stick, better chance to reach higher speeds in OCing.

rUfUnKy · Oct 30, 2002

One stick:
Pros...
1) If OCing, one stick isn't holding the other back from a higher FSB
2) Leaves more DIMS open for future use

Cons...
1) It's always nice to have a extra stick incase you suspect a faulty module

Shadow ÒÓ · Oct 30, 2002

I'm asking strictly for opinions btw....I too have run benchmarks and have yet to see a difference.

Placid · Oct 30, 2002

Both have advantages since this is a one or the other without being specific as to type of memory or better for what I will say
two because if one stops working your system won't be unuseable until you can get a replacement.

Molybdym · Oct 30, 2002

I'm partial to the one stick, not only for the minor performance differences, but it keeps your other slots open for when memory prices drop to pennies a meg(I can dream).

Mushkin HiPerf Cas2-2-2 PC 2700

RedDeathDrinker · Oct 30, 2002

Personally, I say 2 sticks. Like it's said, if one goes up the spout, the other one is there to keep you running........

Codeman05 · Oct 30, 2002

Ideally I would say 1 stick, but I'm running 2 and appears to make no difference performace wise and like has already been said, I like the idea of having a "backup" if a stick craps out

rogerdugans · Oct 30, 2002

I usually go for one stick on the theory that it will OC better (no memory conflict). Might draw slightly less juice as well, but that is a wild guess

I really don't worry about failures too much- considering what I put my computers through, not much breaks! And if a really vital pc ends up with a dead stick of ram, I have more........

yfan · Oct 30, 2002

if its just opinion then probably 2 sticks because its cheaper

Tipycol · Oct 30, 2002

yfan said:
if its just opinion then probably 2 sticks because its cheaper

I thought lately though 1 stick of 512 is cheaper than 2 sticks of 256?

Shadow ÒÓ · Oct 31, 2002

from what I'm seeing on Pricewatch, it is.

grunjee · Oct 31, 2002

In my brief experience with my Corsair (see sig) I'm getting just as good of timings with 2 sticks than when I just had one.

Of course, I can only talk about the range of 188 FSB and below, since past that, I get AGP issues which I think is completely my Radeon's fault (not ram or anything else).

CrystalMethod · Oct 31, 2002

I prefer 2 sticks, because of the redundency factor. Like stated above, if one module is bad, you can still run at 256 till you get a repacement. If you only have one stick, you're kinda out of luck till you get a replacement. For overclocking purposes, I haven't seen a difference between having 2 sticks instead of one.

Tipycol · Oct 31, 2002

CrystalMethod said:
I prefer 2 sticks, because of the redundency factor. Like stated above, if one module is bad, you can still run at 256 till you get a repacement. If you only have one stick, you're kinda out of luck till you get a replacement. For overclocking purposes, I haven't seen a difference between having 2 sticks instead of one.

So it is no longer considered that 2 sticks will hold you back?

Garfield · Oct 31, 2002

If you think about it though, if you have two sticks, there's a better chance that one of them won't OC as well. And then you have asynchronous (sp?) performance in memory. I don't know what the results of that would be, though...

grunjee · Oct 31, 2002

Granted no two sticks are exactly alike, even from the same company.

But if you take stuff like Corsair which is hand-picked (supposedly) and rated to be top of the line, chances are you'll do extremely well with 2 sticks.

JaY_III · Nov 1, 2002

1 stick as the more you have in your computer the less stable it becomes and you hvae to scale the FSB down as a result.

Even if all sticks are good to X FSB, when running 2 sticks you can only get X- 5 FSB and when running 3 stick X - 12FSB for example.

But a system speed will be the same at X FSB if you have 1 stick or RAM or 4 sticks, its just that you X FSB will be lower the more sticks of RAM you have.

This is just my past experience speeking...
and that is even with identical RAM from the same batch

Tipycol · Nov 1, 2002

jay said:
1 stick as the more you have in your computer the less stable it becomes and you hvae to scale the FSB down as a result.

Even if all sticks are good to X FSB, when running 2 sticks you can only get X- 5 FSB and when running 3 stick X - 12FSB for example.

But a system speed will be the same at X FSB if you have 1 stick or RAM or 4 sticks, its just that you X FSB will be lower the more sticks of RAM you have.

This is just my past experience speeking...
and that is even with identical RAM from the same batch

Hmm...so when you run more than 2 sticks, the loss isn't proportional. Guess I'll stick to one stick, unless I get an nForce 2

What do you feel is better? 1 Stick or 2?

Mod in Hiding

Most Generous Member

Member

Member

Mod in Hiding

Senior Member

Member

Senior Aircraftsman IRL

Member

Linux challenged Senior, not that it stops me...

Member

Member

Mod in Hiding

Member

Senior Band Wagon Jumper

Member

Member

Member

Senior of BX

Member

Similar threads