Speed issues with 1GB vs 512MB sticks?

So I run a game hosting business and gonna be needing some nifty 1U dual xeon 2.4ghz comps with tyan i7500 thunder pro board (gonna be building em myself, sooooo much cheaper!!). I need 2.5GB of low-profile memory (games suck up so much ram, damn them). The tyan board requires memory to be in pairs, so I have 2 options

1) Two 1GB sticks and two 256MB sticks
2) Four 512GB sticks and two 256MB sticks

It has 6 memory banks, so everything works out nicely. Its doubful I will be upgrading, so filled memory banks aren't an issue.

Since everything is about speed of course (and price), what would be recommended?
Is there that much of any sort of performance difference between more memory per stick to warrant the cost?

Thanks

azbok

P.S. Link to tyan's mb, http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderi7500pro.html

I highly, highly doubt you're gonna need this much ram... any game today needs about 512mb of memory. As games need more, you can upgrade more in the future (when it's cheaper) But if you really do need that much memory, the performance difference between the 2 options is there, but not important enough to warrant the cost, in my opinion.

Hey Azbok,

I'd use 512MB sticks. The highest density ram always carries a (big) price premium. I don't think the chipset on these boards is going to allow the kind of extreme overclocking that would demonstrate a preference for one or the other, so I would go with my wallet. Even so the high performance DDR out there stops at 512MB, so it's hard to see an advantage in going with 1GB sticks.

1GB 1U DDR sticks have been introduced by Kingston, and they actually use two different types of chips on the same stick to gain the low profile clearance. These are only available up to PC2100 so it would seem they aren't intended for really high speed operation. Given that most server boards don't allow a lot of overclocking (if any) this isn't a big concern for most 1U users.

Even though the possiblilty seems remote now you might well upgrade the memory before these computers outlive their usefullness. It wouldn't be that big of a deal to remove a few 256MB sticks though, there's always another computer somewhere down the food chain that needs more ram. Sure 2.5GB is a lot now, but dual 2.4GHz Xeon's aren't going out of style anytime soon.

PS-the OSP on the NY server has eliminated traffic there. OSP certainly has it's advantages but it also serves to kill the traffic. Gotta think llama if you want to get the exposure your killer server deserves

True no single game requires 512MB, but I'm gonna be running 15-20 game servers at once. I have dual 2.2ghz computers right now with 1.5GB of memory, but with 15 mohaa servers, it sucks up over 1.5GB and causes swapping and I think at least a few cpu cycles are burnt up cause of that.

With the 2.4ghz and more ram, I think it'll be more like 20 servers will run.

Thx for the advice, I'll go with 512's. I figure either corsair or kingston, they seem to be the most popluar with the low-profile sticks.

----

PS-the OSP on the NY server has eliminated traffic there. OSP certainly has it's advantages but it also serves to kill the traffic. Gotta think llama if you want to get the exposure your killer server deserves

Click to expand...

I dunno what that means larva Are you referring to OSP mods - orange smoothie? Also, I have the problem of getting too much exposure. So far it looks like I'll be building one of these dual 2.4's each month - craaaazy.

azbok