Which is better quality ram in single channel or generic ram in dual channel??

I have a A7N8X Deluxe and a Barton 2500 running at 11x200. I need to buy some ram but the money is tight because of christmas... Should I buy 1 stick of high quallity or a pair of more generic for dual channel??

go dual channel. Unless you plan on overclocking then highquality ram is more important. But if you are going to be overclocking, then get 1 stick of 512 high quality ram, then when you can get another highquality 512 then you will have dual channel.

i agree
If you buy cheap ram now, which may not provide enough dual channel performance to match a 512 stick of high quality with better timings, you will definitely regret it when you can finally afford that other stick.

However, some cheap ram performs very well.

that brings up an interesting question for me...my new rig wants a gig, but i cant afford it now. How much performance will i lose if i pick up 1 stick 512 and run it single, and wait till i have a job for the rest? thank you Turbocoupe, i never would have even thought of that if not for this post

Check this out.

It shows that unless you are relying on the IGP, there isn't much gain from dual channel.

IMO there is not enough benefit to dual channel to justify sacrificing timings of quality ram for a cheaper dual channel setup.

dual channel ram gave me virtually no performance boost, and I got the same board. Your bus is limited to XXXMHz, and you can easily fill that bandwith with one channel of ram, unlike the pentium 4. So that second channel cant even be used very efficiently.

For example, if you are running your FSB as 400MHz, you should be running your ram synch at 400MHz, there is little room for another 400MHz worth of RAM.

If for some reason you can get a crazy overclock of 500MHz FSB, I am unsure if it would help running dual channel 400MHz memory. In theory, yes, but in my expiriments it didnt help at 466MHz.

i got about 800MB/s in speed with dual channel using one stick of 512 pc3200 Samsung and a 512 pc3200 Hynix - the Hyn i got for $110 Canaidna - to me that is cheap ram

setting go to cas 2-2-3-7

The cost of Kingston HyperX PC3000 is very near that of generic memory. While HyperX PC3000 w/ Winbond BH-5 chips is some of the best memory available. Price doesn't equal capability

DayUSeX said:

go dual channel. Unless you plan on overclocking then highquality ram is more important. But if you are going to be overclocking, then get 1 stick of 512 high quality ram, then when you can get another highquality 512 then you will have dual channel.

Click to expand...

You need identicle ram, don't wait til you cannot find the exact module to go dual

I cant say that i found much point in going dual channel either. my system is just as zippy with the 2 256 sticks running in single channel and im pretty sure i can get more of a fsb overclock at tight timings than i can with dual. I regret getting 2x256 platinum when i could have got a single stick of 512 mb mushkin black lv 2 3500 for like $20 more. from what i have read, that is pretty much the best ram you can buy.
I would suggest a single stick of the best ram you can afford.

I regret getting 2x256 platinum when i could have got a single stick of 512 mb mushkin black lv 2 3500 for like $20 more. from what i have read, that is pretty much the best ram you can buy.

Click to expand...

thanks valk, you answered my question! ( i was about to ask if getting This and running it in single then waiting untill i could afford another and run dual was a good idea, i diddnt know much about the ram THANKS

In pondering whether to use you NF7 with single versus dual channel, consider that even though you can pump up the FSB in single channel, dual channel offers a much better overall memory communication experience. The night before last, I did some testing and to sum it up, here are some MemTest86 data rates using one of two identical sticks and then using two in dual channel:

Single BH5 512Mb stick 10x220 (2200 Mhz) @ 2-2-2-10 MemTest86 = 1118 MB/S

Dual BH5 512Mb sticks 10x220 (2200 Mhz) @ 2-2-2-10 MemTest86 = 1656 MB/S = 48% faster

Now, how that manifests downstream, running a complex OS and either an application, or synthetic benchmark remains to be seen.

Running a single stick 10x220 (2200 Mhz) 2.5-3-3-9 (needed to run P95 at 220 FSB stable) yields no significantly faster 3D Mark 2001se Score than running Dual Channel 11x200 (2200 Mhz) 2-2-2-9

Hoot