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Dual kits shmual kits

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rashal

Registered
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
About a day ago I was still sure of the fact that a 'Dual Kit' is nothing but two memory plates (with identical specifications) who werent even properly introduced before being put side by side in some 'Dual kit' thingie.

Yesterday I started feeling unsure, so I'm asking this question today.

Lets say I buy 2 plates of GeIL 512mb DDR pc3200 Ultra-x, and later a GeIL pc3200 ultra-x dual kit (1gb = 512x2). I put the 2 plates I bought seperately in one system, and the dual kit in another completely identical system. Questions:

1) Is there a difference in preformance? Even a slight one?
2) Is there a difference in cost? (difference = over 5$, because I'm sure the fancy 'kit' plastic will cost a few extra bucks.)

Thanks for your time.
 
I personaly thing it's a load of crap, but others swear by it. I've never bought a dual kit and have ran DC just fine with my current setup, a p4 setup, and a nforce2 setup (can't remember the chipset on the p4 but it was on an Abit AI7)
 
There's really no point to dual channel kits for people who know what theyre doing. The kits are for people who do not know how to match timings and speeds, ect. Also, it can be sort of good for troubleshooting incase it's not working properly you'll know something is wrong with one of the sticks.
 
I don't agree with the "identical dual channel" thing either, and here's why.

I have an A8N-SLI motherboard (AMD 939 dual channel, two banks per channel) and I have two different sets of PDP PC-3200 512MB modules (four in total, two "dual channel kits" purchased at different times). I put the red ones in one channel, and the blue ones in the other, and it POSTs in dual channel. I mix it up, they post in dual channel, etc... I don't think it matters that terribly much.
 
So if I'll buy two identical memory cards, I'll have to match their timing speeds or something like that (I dont know what matching time speeds means, but I'll read about it after work)?

How about prices? Is there a major difference?
 
PS. I desided to go with the mushkin 1GB DC kit. I think it's the last time I'm changing my future pc configuration. This is what I'm gonna buy:

CPU: AMD athlon 64bit 3200+ venice core
GC: XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128mb gddr3 PCI-E
Mem: Mushkin 1GB DDR (2x512MB) XP3200 2-2-2 (that black line thingie)
MOBO: DFI LanParty UT nF 4 ultra-D
HD: Maxtor 120Gb SATA (dimond 9 or something)

Comments? Suggestions?
 
It is usually cheaper to buy 2 seperate sticks than dual channel kits but then you pay double the shipping so the difference is minor.
All the dual channel systems I have built use two single modules purchased at the same time
 
rashal said:
So if I'll buy two identical memory cards, I'll have to match their timing speeds or something like that (I dont know what matching time speeds means, but I'll read about it after work)?

How about prices? Is there a major difference?

If you get two different sticks, it will just work at the speed of the slower stick, so the faster stick will be in effect underclocked.
 
you dont have to buy matched stick to get the dual channel exapmle: ive done it many times, 2 sticks of compltely different ram, different company, different timings, same speed tho...that way it will dc, but the only real thing you need to get is the same speed, and if you have a 1.5 cas or 2 cas, it may not work with a 3 cas stick....but its worth a try, i dont see the great difference in matching the sticks, (got that now) it just seems like they want to make more money by "matching and increasing" your performance
 
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