2 gig or 4 gigs ?

[xxxmike62xxx]

I know this is a noob question but should I buy a 2 stick 2 gig kit or a 4 gig 2 stick kit The reason I ask is because the motherboard i am upgading to can handle only 2 gigs of ddr2 ram. Do I buy a 4 gig kit and use 1 stick or buy 2 gig kit and use 2 sticks. Just thinking of future upgrades. The egg has a ocz gold kit of 2 gigs for 23 dollars. any thoughts are appreciated

[Cuiiey]

i not too sure i get you about your wording lol, you want 2 sticks or 2gb ram or 4 sticks or 2gb ram?

[Mr.Guvernment]

What motherboard are you getting? i dont know of anmy DDR2 based boards that can only handle 2G of ram?

[xxxmike62xxx]

I am buying an asrock dual core2 sata. It supports both agp and pci so I can slowly upgrade my system. i also purchased an e7300 processor. The board supports dual core, or so they say, but only 2 gigs of ram. I meant to say, should I buy the 4 gig kit, and use only one stick, or the two gig stick and use 2 sticks. I have ati 3850 agp on a athlon 3800 single core ,which scores about 6900 on 3dmark06 and want to see what it will do with a dual core. The board is only sixty dollars so if it doesnt work , i still have the processor for a future upgrade. i would buy the 4 gigs for a future build. I have 2 gigs of corsair value I could use, but with prices this cheap, i thought I would buy some performance ram. Any suggestions on what to buy would be appreciated. I want to spend less than 50 dollars. thanks

[Nickds7]

Well if it can only support 2gbs of ddr2 then I would certainly go for 2 sticks of 1gb. You effectively double the speed of your ram by doing so.

[Mr.DLucey]

I would stick with your " 2 gigs of corsair value ram"


Ya "Max. capacity of system memory: 2GB"
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4COREDUAL-SATA2

[doublejack]

I realize I might be a few days late, but I also suggest staying with a 2gb kit. It's the best choice, by far, because this mobo supports dual channel memory so 2x1gb will be much faster than a single 2gb stick.

Also, it is not efficient to buy memory that you can't use (a second 2gb stick) especially since you may never use it. Who knows, your next mobo will probably be a DDR3 based one.

What motherboard are you getting? i dont know of anmy DDR2 based boards that can only handle 2G of ram?

There are, unfortunately, many DDR2 mobo's that only support 2gb max. Here's an example of another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135068

Almost half of the 945 express chipset mobo's only handle 2gb, as well as a good number that use VIA chipsets. I'd say there are at least 100 different DDR2 boards that are limited to 2gb, and that's just on the Intel side.

[Xaero_toast]

If it's not already too late, I would choose a different motherboard. 2GB is a severely limited motherboard. 2GB is ample for light computing these days, so it may be enough for your needs today, but what of tomorrow? I would also recommend something with an intel chipset. I've had bad experiences with via chipsets, for both amd and intel cpu's. My issues with via chipsets were back in the P3/Athlon days, so it was a long time ago, but they gave me so much trouble, I still won't buy them.

[Old Thrashbarg]

There are, unfortunately, many DDR2 mobo's that only support 2gb max. Here's an example of another one

I know for sure that one supports 4GB RAM, regardless of what the specs say. I'd actually venture to say that most, if not all 945GC boards will take 4GB, and that the ones that are only specced for 2GB just came out before 2GB sticks of RAM were available/common.

Also, with regards to that Asrock board, this might be worth reading (http://pieterb.be/2008/01/16/asrock-4coredual-sata2-4gb-support/).

[Mr.Guvernment]

There are, unfortunately, many DDR2 mobo's that only support 2gb max. Here's an example of another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135068

Almost half of the 945 express chipset mobo's only handle 2gb, as well as a good number that use VIA chipsets. I'd say there are at least 100 different DDR2 boards that are limited to 2gb, and that's just on the Intel side.

ahh yes, i wasn't thinking back to the 9 series chipset :)

[doublejack]

ahh yes, i wasn't thinking back to the 9 series chipset :)

Yup. And the weird (sad?) part is that there are still several 9 series mobo's in production. At least of the micro-ATX persuasion. :beer:

[Old Thrashbarg]

And the weird (sad?) part is that there are still several 9 series mobo's in production.

My post above seems to have been overlooked, so I'll say it again.

First of all, the 945 is not a bad chipset, I was using a 945GC board until I got my newest AMD system, and it was fine even with the CPU overclocked (BSEL mod) and I even put 4GB ram in it before I gave it to my Dad... it's running with no troubles.

The reason a lot of those boards don't officially support 4GB ram is not due to any actual limitation, rather it's simply because 4GB kits weren't in common use when the boards were released, so the documentation only reflects the 2GB configuration that was in common use. Some boards may require a BIOS update for 4GB, but again, if you look around, chances are pretty good that such an update exists. I suspect the same is true with a lot of the Via boards. It's not 100%, I'm sure there are some boards in existence that will only work with 2GB ram, but they're a lot less common than the listed specs would have you believe.

As for the OP's Asrock board, according to the link I found, it appears that it will indeed work with more than 2GB ram with a newer BIOS and some settings tweaks. It seems that it may not recognize a full 4GB due to some addressing limitation (same deal as the 32-bit OS limitation), but with RAM prices as cheap as they are now, even if it'll only recognize ~3.4GB, that's better than 2. It's worth looking into, anyhow.

[eobard]

I am buying an asrock dual core2 sata. It supports both agp and pci so I can slowly upgrade my system. i also purchased an e7300 processor. The board supports dual core, or so they say, but only 2 gigs of ram. I meant to say, should I buy the 4 gig kit, and use only one stick, or the two gig stick and use 2 sticks. I have ati 3850 agp on a athlon 3800 single core ,which scores about 6900 on 3dmark06 and want to see what it will do with a dual core. The board is only sixty dollars so if it doesnt work , i still have the processor for a future upgrade. i would buy the 4 gigs for a future build. I have 2 gigs of corsair value I could use, but with prices this cheap, i thought I would buy some performance ram. Any suggestions on what to buy would be appreciated. I want to spend less than 50 dollars. thanks
Two things to note about that board:
1) due to the nature of the dual video capabilities, you can only get a max speed from the PCI express of PCI-E X4, not 16. (and supposedly you can't run ANYTHING in the PCI-E slot if you are using an AGP card, no add-on raid card, NOTHING)
2) That mobo plays nicer with older hardware than newer. With my AGP card and DDR1 I could get to a FSB of 314 rock solid stable. Now with a PCI-E card and DDR2 I'm stuck at 281. I've also heard that the SATA on that board does not take to overclocking very well. I'm only running PATA on that system so I don't know, but from what I've read it doesn't sound too promising.

I strongly recommend reading this (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Threaded&catid=29&threadid=2063964) thread. It'll take a few years to get through, but in the end you'll have a wealth of data on that board.

[Xaero_toast]

The reason a lot of those boards don't officially support 4GB ram is not due to any actual limitation, rather it's simply because 4GB kits weren't in common use when the boards were released,

I think that's only one of several reasons, but a good one nonetheless. I usually go to intel's chipset page, and look up the memory capacity of the chipset that is on the motherboard in question. This method has never failed me, even where the mfr. has been incorrect. For example, dell says the max for my wife's laptop is 2 GB, but last fall I put 4GB in it, and it has worked just fine. I made my decision based one what I found on intel's chipset page for the chipset in that laptop, and the memory configurators from crucial and corsair. Intel and one of the memory mfr pages said 4GB, while dell and the other memory mfr page said 2GB.
I think another reason dell says "2GB" is so their tech support is can tell people it only supports 2GB when they call and say their 32bit OS only sees 3.25GB of their recent 4GB upgrade.

[cyberfish]

Or maybe because 2GB (or 4GB, if single slot) sticks weren't available at that time, and they had no way to test them.

[Old Thrashbarg]

For example, dell says the max for my wife's laptop is 2 GB

I agree with most of what you said, but you do have to be careful with some of the proprietary stuff, like Dell laptops especially. I've worked on a few where the chipset would support 2GB, but for some strange reason the machine wouldn't boot with more than 512MB, in any configuration. (They were P4 Latitudes, so older, but not ancient.)

But for most standardized hardware, it's been pretty common for years for the documentation to underestimate both RAM and processor support. I still have some old 440BX boards which only officially support 400mhz PII processors and 384MB RAM, but they work fine with 1ghz PIII's and 768MB RAM, one of 'em even has a Tualatin in it (on a modified slot adapter, but it works).

[MongGrel]

a motherboard that only supports 2 gig these days almost sounds like running an old C-64 :P but just my input.

Id upgrade to another MB to begin with before even thinking about ram.

[OldSkool]

Rather than read the responses, I'll just say max it out and you'll have no regrets ;)

[cyberfish]

How much is the motherboard selling for? Unless it's dirt cheap (<$40), I wouldn't even consider it. They have to cut many corners to make that kind of "hybrid" boards - slow DDR (only 666), slow PCI-E (4x), VIA chipset, etc, and ASRock boards are not exactly known for their stability. Decent P35 boards can be had for <$80 now, and they will be able to take your E7300 to at least close to 4ghz, and I don't think the VIA chipset can go anywhere near that (FSB limit).

Since you are already upgrading both CPU and memory, you will only need a new PCI-E video card. It's going to be more expensive (for the video card), but you will get MUCH better value.