3 X 256MB DDR or 2 X 256MB DDR

Just curious if there's any advantage to using more or less RAM based on the amount of slots. I've heard some people tell me that I should only use 2 X 256MB DDR sticks in my Asus A7V333 Athlon 1800XP setup. Others say the 792MB using 3 X 256MB DDR is a better option as I have more RAM.

Can anyone help clear this up? What's better? Using 2 sticks of RAM instead of 3 or having more total RAM?

Thanks,

Patrick

It depends....if you're not heavily into video editing, 3 sticks is a bit of an overkill.....

Win2000/XP run happily with 512Megs (even that gives plenty to spare!). And with the price of memory these days, 2 is cheaper than 3!

There has been a lot of speculation about how many sticks to run, but some good info is here......

Well, price isn't a concern in this perticular situation. I was fortunate enough to purchase all 3 sticks of Crucial PC2100 256MB for $27 each back in September. The week after my purchase, prices started to climb and haven't gotten that low since. Anyhow, my debate is more along the lines of:

-Should I install 2 sticks and sell the 3rd?
-Should I install 3 sticks for using WinXP and gaming since that's what I do most?



From reading the article from the link you provided, it seems to indicate that I'd be better off using 2 sticks and using the money from the 3rd stick for better use.


Any other comments on this?

PatP said:

Just curious if there's any advantage to using more or less RAM based on the amount of slots. I've heard some people tell me that I should only use 2 X 256MB DDR sticks in my Asus A7V333 Athlon 1800XP setup. Others say the 792MB using 3 X 256MB DDR is a better option as I have more RAM.

Can anyone help clear this up? What's better? Using 2 sticks of RAM instead of 3 or having more total RAM?

Thanks,

Patrick

Click to expand...

I use 3x256 no probs!
BTW 3 x 256 = 768

I've gotten over the 512MB ram mark many times now and thats just from playing games. I recommend at least 768MB of ram or even 1GB if you can afford it. There is no reason to skimp on Ram now days.


AXIA

Has anyone tried benchmarking using 2 or 3 sticks to see whether there is a warrantable increase in performance between the 2 configurations?

Thanks for all your replies,

Patrick

Obviously, if your not using more than 512MB of ram and your running on two sticks, the two sticks will give you about 1% more performance over using the third stick or even having it installed.

But as soon as you go over that 512MB limit, having three sticks could improve performance by up to 50% depending on how slow your PC uses virtual memory. LOL something I havnt seen in a long time heh.

Thats why I stuck with 2 sticks and just got 512MB modules. I think 256MB modules are shabby and arnt worth my money for they leave you with little room to upgrade.


AXIA

If you have the three sticks use them.
The only concern I would have with 3sticks vs 2 sticks would be price. And seeing as you got them during the big drop in RAM prices you should be fine with three.

768MB will be perfect for most tasks. I have 512MB and run WindowsXP. Its a lot faster than with 256MB.