Ram question.

[Sir. Shpox]

Hello there, I currently am not so tech saavy as you lot in the field of "ram", and I'm curious about a local purchase.

I currently have 2x512 sticks of "Corsair DDR2 Xm2 Pro Series" and I'm planning on upgrading to 2 GB.

Im not sure however if it would be more beneficial to have 4 x 512 sticks, or Just get a single 1 gb stick, which would offer me better perfomance, and I assume getting 2 x 1 GB sticks ending up with 3Gb would be pointless as windows wouldn't be able to utilize that much ram and would not serve be the same benfits as 1 gb to a 2gb conversion.

I also plan to buy a new PC when the core duo's are deemed not so top-notch, possibly with the addition of DX-10 card to be a bit more future proof.

Thanks for you attention.

[Corkum]

Re: Ram question.

well... if you go with a single gig stick it occupies less space, and therefore when/ if you upgrade to vista and felt like dropping in say.. another 2 gigs you could, and you wouldnt have to toss a 512 stick to make room.

to clarify, if i recall correctly vista will be able to efficiently utilize much more ram well over the 4 gig range.

[imported_Tren]

Re: Ram question.

Well my gut feeling is to go with the 512s. Mainly because I know that it is always good to be running the exact same kind of RAM sticks. On the flip side, as long as the 1GB is the same kind of RAM you shouldn't have a problem - and if your planning to upgrade to vista you should probably go with the 1 GB.

[Merlin]

Re: Ram question.

2 x 1Gb sticks would be the best option. Then sell the 2 x 512's.

[kenof2142]

Re: Ram question.

I would go with 2x1gb, there have been a couple benchmark tests that indicate it's slightly faster (same speed ram) then 4x512mb. Sell the 2x512mb and it's not that expensive of an upgrade.

[imported_Mrt1989]

Re: Ram question.

First of all Windows XP does use 3gb of ram , even 4gb with tweaked OS.
Buying 1gb stick is pointless because you cant run Dual-Channel mode and that means overall performance is slower.Id go with 2x512 , then you wont have to sell your current memory and you can run dual channel aswell.

[Sir. Shpox]

Re: Ram question.

Thanks for the help guys, as I said before, I plan on keeping this system as is after getting a DX-10 Card for it later, and these 2x512's, then getting a complete new system later.
Thanks for clearing that up Mrt, didn't know windows utilized more than 3gb, but I don't plan on a running a server anytime soon. :p