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Which is faster? (# of RAM modules)

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Krogen

Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2006
Location
Underground
Which will perform better? 1 2GB 800MHz 5-5-5-15 (single channel);vs; 2 1GB 800MHz 5-5-5-15 (dual channel);vs; 4 512MB 800MHz 5-5-5-15 modules (dual channel)? Any difference? All with the same mobo and other components.
 
The second choice 2x1GB because you will have the option of upgrading to 4GB and your running dual channel
 
It's true that whenever you use more RAM and more sticks overclocks tend to go down as does stability. However as far as ram bandwidth goes at a constant MHZ, you want to use as many slots as possible. This again is assuming we are only concerned with speaking of ram throughput. It's simple logic 4 slots is better then 2 even with the same about of ram. It's simply a matter of the memory controller's assignments. This is usually what causes the system instability, along with the greater need for power consumption. (4 sticks of 512 need more power then 2 sticks of 1024) The controller has more physical objects to address.
 
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