1x512Mb PC2700 or 2x 256Mb PC3200?

I thought I had it all figured out, or mostly so, anyway, after reading through a slew of threads and especially after reading Drislers excellent OP, but now that it’s getting down to the wire, I’m not sure what to do, so…

My new A7N8X-X and Barton 2500+ (locked, I know) will be arriving Monday and I’m trying to figure out what memory I’m going to put in the system.

Thanks to buddies of mine, I have one stick of each of the following:
512Mb PC2700 Kingston HyperX
256Mb PC3200 Geil Ultra
256Mb PC3200 Kingmax SuperRAM

Now, assuming I’m going to be able to do the “basic/standard” OC of 11x200 or thereabouts, my questions are these- 1) can I successfully use all the memory? If not, 2) which would be the best memory to install? And I suppose 3) do the answers depend on what it is I’m planning on doing with my system? (gaming and ripping DVDs/HTPC)

Thanks in advance for any opinions, insight, informed blatherings, or anecdotal teachings.


The rest of my rig, if it matters, is:
Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350
Gigabyte ATI Radeon 9200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit
(various) HD totalling 630Gb memory, ATA133
Promise SATA150 TX2plus
RAIDMAX 10-bay case w/ 420W PSU

Of them all...I would honestly get 1x512 Kingston Hyper X...you wont be getting too much over 200FSB with the locked 2500...most max around 215 or so...about the same the PC2700 HyperX kingston max's out...and you will get better memory bandwidth OCing the PC2700 real high instead of OCing the PC3200 real low (between 200 and 220) especially since the NF2 MB's like between 8 and 11 Tras...

Also, Welcome...

figure out the top speed of the hyperx. if its not limiting ur overclock, since it is 2700, then that mite work better than 2 mismatched pairs running dual channel. if the hyperx's dont get much past stock, u culd try running the mismatched pc3200's with dual channel. dual channel is usually better than just 1x512. just gotta test and see how far that hyperx will go.

as the 2 stated above..just test to see how high ur hyperx will go..if that thing gets pretty high..then i think u would be better off with a hyperx..u can usually get high oc's without dual channel..but with dual channel u get a bigger memory bandwidth..so just use both memory setups and try to oc as high as u can that is stable and run benchmarks.

u can also have fun and do dual channel with ur 256's and stick ur 512 in the third slot..i dunno.

Thank you for the information, folks, much appreciated (as is the "welcome to the forum.")

So, I guess I'll see what this thing can do this afternoon/evening and get to y'all.

In other news, I wish I'd have spent the extra $13 on an Antec SLK3700- I didn't realize the Raidmax PSU's were such junk. Oh, well.