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Best RAM configuration: 4 x 512MB -or- 2 x 1024MB

post #1 of 4
2/11/05 at 2:03pm
Thread Starter 
what configuration is better... using all 4 memory slots or doubling the modules using only 2 slots?

Is there any difference in speed between 4 x 512MB vs. 2 x 1024MB? or more importantly, which configuration is less demanding on the system or may produce less heat?
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post #2 of 4
2/11/05 at 2:28pm
If you have no plans to upgrade in the future, getting more smaller dimms is the way to go. It is slightly faster as the machine can access all four dimms at the same time, and if you ever have any memory go bad, it'll be cheaper to replace. That's not important under warranty, but eventually the warranty runs out.

Not sure about heat.
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post #3 of 4
2/11/05 at 4:21pm
2x1024 would probably be slightly faster because there will be less latency when trying to access each dimm. Having more sticks does not mean it will be faster because each location on the ram has an address which is associated with that stick, and that is what is being accessed, so reguardless of how many sticks of ram are in there, a piece of data on one stick will be accessed just as fast as fast as it would if there were more less sticks (with the exception of latency, which really isn't going to make much of a difference)

I could be wrong though.
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post #4 of 4
2/12/05 at 2:58am
From what I can tell on the subject, the performance difference should be all but negligible. I went with the 2x1024, just for the sake of future upgrade space, but if they need to change it to 5x512, I'll shed no tears. The pros of each configuration should pretty much cancel each other out; you might be able to tell it on a benchmark, but even that would be easier said than done.

If I had to choose, though, I'd agree with Revo1ver, on the matter of slightly less latency. Then again, the 4x512 would, as Hammerhead said, work in better unison. So, go figure.
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