Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

[Cyborg_Soldier]

DDR2 seems to have jumped alot in price.. Could swear I saw 2x1gig kits a month ago for around $150... now $200 min (crap). Messes up my budget so I need a work around.

My question is:
If I buy only one 1gig stick of ddr2 for my new system how bad will it effect performance (being single channel) compared to two sticks of 512 in dual channel?
also- if i did go 2x512 now... any problem putting in another 2x1gig later on (for a total of 3gig)?

Notes:
The reason for this is that I want to buy another one gig stick later on when I can afford it.
If I buy two sticks of 512 I can run in dual channel NOW, but it'll fll my banks when I buy another 2.
Ideally I'd like to have 2gigs ddr2 (2x1gig) now and buy another pair down the road. (although I've heard xp does'nt do so great with 4gigs, BUT there's always Vista)
Not planning to OC this system.
Planning to use e6300 cpu. Maybe 805d to save money and upgrade later, but I doubt it - the e6300 almost twice as good.
Thinking at least 667 pc2-5400 speed for ram in case upgrade to quad core down the road (333fsb)

Regarding quad core.. given an strong psu and a 965 or 975x chipset mobo, do you think I'd be able to pop in a quad core down the road?

[TehFunk]

Re: Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

My question is:
If I buy only one 1gig stick of ddr2 for my new system how bad will it effect performance (being single channel)

Dual channel increases RAM performance by 10%-15%, so thats not an incredible jump, but for a person who is all about their stuff being top notch, dual channel is the way. Same with having 2 sticks of ram instead of 3 or 4. Just having 2 sticks gives you a tad more fps, like 4-5 more in some instances.

[BOBSONATOR025]

Re: Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

Regarding quad core.. given an strong psu and a 965 or 975x chipset mobo, do you think I'd be able to pop in a quad core down the road?

With an upgraded bios yes.

Make sure its a good PSU.

[Cyborg_Soldier]

Re: Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

thanks guys... you've confirmed what I've read about being able to pop in a quad core down the line, and set my mind at ease about only losing 10-15% by running single channel... I'll get another stick and go dual channel in a couple months (probably sooner because I'll be dying for the performance increase.. current machine only has 1 gig)

If anyone else has any input it's appreciated...

Thanks

[BOBSONATOR025]

Re: Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

Make sure you get that SAME exact stick.

[kulamonster3]

Re: Single Stick Ram Drawbacks.. how bad are they? and a quadcore question

Yeah or ditch the single RAM Chip and by a Matched Twin set, they work better together than 2 of the best singles out there and have a lot less latency than your off the shelf singles! IMHO its worth the few extra bucks!!