Advice Please

[DMB2000uk]

I would ideally like 2GB RAM in my new build, but it doesn't look like I'll have enough money to get it straight away, unless i go crazy and screw my budget! But the questions I'm asking are these:

1. If I'm only getting 1GB RAM now is it better to go with a 2 x 512MB kit in dual channel or just 1 x 1GB? (I may be stuck with 1GB longer than I would like!)

2. Would there be any problems from running 'untested' 2 x 1GB ram in dual channel?

4. Are there any performance hits/gains from using up all 4 RAM slots on the motherboard (i.e. 4 x 512MB)? I'll hopefully be using CL4 PC2-6400 if that makes a difference.

3. How awesome is LR on a scale of 1 - 10.


Dan

[kenc51]

buy a single 1GB stick from Crucial and buy another 'round christmas
Single vs dual channel isn't that much performance!

[Apoptosis]

1. If I'm only getting 1GB RAM now is it better to go with a 2 x 512MB kit in dual channel or just 1 x 1GB? (I may be stuck with 1GB longer than I would like!)

The 2 x 512MB of OCZ DDR2 800MHz memory runs $98 in the states, so my advice would be to buy budget 800MHz memory in the 2x512mb sizes and use it till you can sell it and buy what you want/need

2. Would there be any problems from running 'untested' 2 x 1GB ram in dual channel?

It's not going to harm anything and will work fine for the most part. UTT memory for DDR1 was okay and Mushkin used it in their redline series for a bit. This memory is cheap because it's not been tested at the factory... sometimes it's not even tested by the time you get it.

3. Are there any performance hits/gains from using up all 4 RAM slots on the motherboard (i.e. 4 x 512MB)? I'll hopefully be using CL4 PC2-6400 if that makes a difference.

On AMD's AM2 platform I've noted using all 4 memory banks actually improves performance on nvidia chipsets on all other chipsets and brands I haven't noticed that trend.

4. How awesome is LR on a scale of 1 - 10.

10, but I may be influenced.

[AgentJ]

Right now, since 2MB L2 cache and 4MB L2 cache doesn't show *that* much of a performance difference... (although it may in the future I was told), you could always downgrade to a E6400 and spend the difference getting a good pair of DDR2 800 2x1Gb of memory......

Unless you wait to wait that is... I just dislike spending cash on something I wont use in the near future... but you may be able to sell the memory later on, as Apoptosis said... but I've had a hard time re-selling anything for anything close to what I've wanted for it.