Multiple sticks per channel versus 1 stick per channel?

I have dual channel slots with 2 slots on each channel. Would two 512mb sticks on each channel (4 total) act any differently than one 1024mb stick on each channel (2 total)? Some people say more sticks hurt overclock, some say it slows down the channel or something. Can anyone tell me how it really works?

i wish i could explain this to u in detail but all i can say mostly is that yes with all slots filled it does hurt your overclock..because of the slots being filled the CPU has to communicate even more which makes it less possible to get a higher OC with the CPU working harder as it is....256*2 sticks will oc a bit further the 2*512 because of the Less MB on each channel the CPU has to deal with..catch my drift??? some more Experts can explain it in details and correct some of my info if im not on point in simple form...

Ok, basically then, how much might it effect my OC? I have a p4 3.0 and am looking at getting a Mach 1 for CPU cooling. I'd like to upgrade to 2 gigs of ram, would 4x 512 hurt my OC a lot more than 2x 1024?

im afraid to say but yes most likely...but i havent seen anyone on here who have tried the 1024 sticks so even tho they take 2 slots still might have a chance of hurting your OC with a large cpapcity stick..BUT i could be wrong but with 4x512 dont expect 2 much...2x512 is plenty...then u kan be OC happy like the rest of us...

Well, I really don't want to discuss whether 1 gig is enough or not, I have 1 gig now and I want more, lol. No offense Sophisticated, but could anyone else comment? Maybe someone who's tried 4x 256 vs 2x 512 or something? I just want a general idea of if, why, and how much it might hurt my OC? If it's not much, then the extra ram is worth it, if it's a lot then I'll need to think about it more.

There are a series of articles at Anandtech which address the question of how to best populate the memory slots on the 865/875 based motherboards. Their conclusion, which is mostly consistent with an Intel whitepaper on the same topic is that 4 double sided modules perform best, followed by either 4 single sided or two double sided. The second best option, I believe depended on whether it was for the 865 or the 875 chipset. The article does not however, address the best overclock, just the best performance. There are some threads on this forum which I believe address this for 2 x 256 vs 2 x 512, but I have not seen any that discuss the use of 2 x 1024. The consensus seems to be about a 4-5 fsb increase using the 2 x 256. It appears that it puts less of a burden on the memory controller when you are trying to overclock. You might be able to extend that logic to the 1024 sticks and expect a slightly lower OC using the 2 gigs of RAM, however, that doesn't mean that your rig's actual performance (by way of real world apps and scores on benchmarks, etc) will be less than if you were using 4 x 512. One practical advantage of using the 4 x 512 would be that if you changed your mind on needing 2 gigs, you could always use the other 2 x 512 on another rig or sell them. You don't have that option using the 2 x 1024 sticks. By the way, those threads I referenced above are not that old so you should be able to find them.

Below are links to the Anandtech articles, in case you are interested. They are a "Part I" and a "Part II" type series. Hope some of this helps you with your decision.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1839

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1849

Ok, I skimmed those anandtech articles and read a bunch of old threads on this topic and it appears to me that the main thing is that with multiple sticks the chances of getting a bad one is greater, and thats the biggest thing. But also there are some small chipset specific things etc. that effect it... Like one chipset doesn't handle this or that so well.

So, my system is P4 3.0, Asus P4C800 Deluxe, and 2x 512mb sticks of buffalo ram that is Winbond CH-5 chips.

Basically there are a lot of contradictory statements that I found and it appears that in general less is better than more, but it gets confusing with Dual Channel (which I have), and it's hard to distinguish when people are simply referring to the greater chance of a bad stick or to something less obvious.

Larva's post in this thread seems knowledgable, but I can't understand most of it, lol. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144750&highlight=multiple