Question about memory
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Posted by newton on September 11, 2007, 11:31 am
Please log in for more thread options gobs of money available I purchased a barebones system for $159 with a 400W power supply and an ASRock LG 775 Dual-VSTA (not a spelling error - not Vista) SATA 2 board. The mobo is the ultimate upgraders dream. It accepts all my old parts and has slots for new things. The processor that came with the case and mobo is a Celeron D 356 @ 3,33 Ghz and seems very crisp using my old DDR memory - though the board will accept DDR2 memory. My question is about Dual Channel versus single and about DDR2 vs. DDR. I have mixed memory at the moment. A PC2700 256mb Micron and a 512mb PC3200 Kingston. The manual that came with the mobo says to enable dual- channel you must have the same type of chip in each slot. So if I bought a 512mb Kingston chip giving me a Gig of memory would I have better performance than if I bought simply a 1gb chip at 667 Mhz DDR2? The prices are roughly comparable between the older Kingston at 512mb and new 1gb chip. And the option of keeping the old Kingston is not available as one cannot mix DDR and DDR2 - but I could buy a 1gb DDR at about the same price as a DDR2. soliciting thoughts? thanks | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Paul on September 11, 2007, 1:34 pm
Please log in for more thread options 2x512MB PC3200 in dual channel mode equals 6.4GB/sec theoretical. 1x1GB DDR2-667 would be 667*8 = 5.336GB/sec (i.e. PC2-5300) so less than the above. Using two DDR2-667 sticks would give 667*8 * 2 = 10.6GB/sec So if you're on a limited budget, then a 512MB DDR for $27 or so, will give you a pair of PC3200 512MB DIMMs. Sometimes the impact of dual channel is not that great. One place I noticed it made a difference, was on a motherboard with integrated (chipset) graphics, where the desktop seemed a bit snappier after getting dual channel mode working. If you have a separate graphics card, then the video card memory is used for the frame buffer, so the same effect won't exist. The change might be more or less transparent to you. If someone blindfolded you, and put either one or two sticks in the machine, and then you tried to do email or web surfing, you might not be able to tell whether one or two sticks was in use. Of course, if the computer is starved for memory, the paging to disk would tell you. But if there was sufficient memory that just the memory was used with no paging, you might not be able to tell. A benchmark can tell, because benchmarks are more dependent on system resources. As would a stopwatch test, like if you were doing DVDShrink and waiting for the results. But for a lot of interactive activities, the effect would be less noticeable. A couple days ago, I saw a 2x1GB DDR2-800 CAS5 kit for $75, so you can do a pretty amazing memory upgrade for pretty cheap. Paul | |||||||||||||
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Posted by newton on September 13, 2007, 5:47 pm
Please log in for more thread options
> newton wrote:
>> I had a Dell Dimension 2400 Cleron that just recently died. Not
>> having gobs of money available I purchased a barebones system for >> $159 with a 400W power supply and an ASRock LG 775 Dual-VSTA (not a >> spelling error - not Vista) SATA 2 board. The mobo is the ultimate >> upgraders dream. It accepts all my old parts and has slots for new >> things. The processor that came with the case and mobo is a Celeron >> D 356 @ 3,33 Ghz and seems very crisp using my old DDR memory - >> though the board will accept DDR2 memory. >> >> My question is about Dual Channel versus single and about DDR2 vs. >> DDR. I have mixed memory at the moment. A PC2700 256mb Micron and a >> 512mb PC3200 Kingston. The manual that came with the mobo says to >> enable dual- channel you must have the same type of chip in each >> slot. So if I bought a 512mb Kingston chip giving me a Gig of memory >> would I have better performance than if I bought simply a 1gb chip at >> 667 Mhz DDR2? >> >> The prices are roughly comparable between the older Kingston at 512mb >> and new 1gb chip. And the option of keeping the old Kingston is not >> available as one cannot mix DDR and DDR2 - but I could buy a 1gb DDR >> at about the same price as a DDR2. >> >> soliciting thoughts? >> >> >> thanks >
> 2x512MB PC3200 in dual channel mode equals 6.4GB/sec theoretical. > > 1x1GB DDR2-667 would be 667*8 = 5.336GB/sec (i.e. PC2-5300) so less > than the above. > > Using two DDR2-667 sticks would give 667*8 * 2 = 10.6GB/sec > > So if you're on a limited budget, then a 512MB DDR for $27 or so, > will give you a pair of PC3200 512MB DIMMs. > > Sometimes the impact of dual channel is not that great. One place > I noticed it made a difference, was on a motherboard with integrated > (chipset) graphics, where the desktop seemed a bit snappier after > getting dual channel mode working. If you have a separate graphics > card, then the video card memory is used for the frame buffer, so the > same effect won't exist. > > The change might be more or less transparent to you. If someone > blindfolded you, and put either one or two sticks in the machine, > and then you tried to do email or web surfing, you might not be > able to tell whether one or two sticks was in use. Of course, > if the computer is starved for memory, the paging to disk would > tell you. But if there was sufficient memory that just the memory > was used with no paging, you might not be able to tell. > > A benchmark can tell, because benchmarks are more dependent on system > resources. As would a stopwatch test, like if you were doing DVDShrink > and waiting for the results. But for a lot of interactive activities, > the effect would be less noticeable. > > A couple days ago, I saw a 2x1GB DDR2-800 CAS5 kit for $75, so you can > do a pretty amazing memory upgrade for pretty cheap. > > Paul > thanks for the info - still confused somewhat. The old adage was that more memory is always better than less. What I failed to make clear I think is that I could obtain a DDR 1GB stick at about same money as a DDR2 stick. Now wanting to throw things away - I would have 1.5 GB of DDR memory - if I just purchased the 1GB DDR2 - would it be better to go that route or just maintain. And the 800lb gorilla in the room is that DDR will not be supported by new motherboards. This mobo does but it is due to be discontinued. So maybe take a bite and buy a single 1GB DDR2 that can be used later. thinking. thanks | |||||||||||||
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> gobs of money available I purchased a barebones system for $159 with a 400W
> power supply and an ASRock LG 775 Dual-VSTA (not a spelling error - not
> Vista) SATA 2 board. The mobo is the ultimate upgraders dream. It accepts
> all my old parts and has slots for new things. The processor that came
> with the case and mobo is a Celeron D 356 @ 3,33 Ghz and seems very crisp
> using my old DDR memory - though the board will accept DDR2 memory.
>
> My question is about Dual Channel versus single and about DDR2 vs. DDR.
> I have mixed memory at the moment. A PC2700 256mb Micron and a 512mb
> PC3200 Kingston. The manual that came with the mobo says to enable dual-
> channel you must have the same type of chip in each slot. So if I bought a
> 512mb Kingston chip giving me a Gig of memory would I have better
> performance than if I bought simply a 1gb chip at 667 Mhz DDR2?
>
> The prices are roughly comparable between the older Kingston at 512mb and
> new 1gb chip. And the option of keeping the old Kingston is not available
> as one cannot mix DDR and DDR2 - but I could buy a 1gb DDR at about the
> same price as a DDR2.
>
> soliciting thoughts?
>
>
> thanks