Memory advice please

[Dingo]

Hi,

     was wondering if any of you could tell me if there is an equation for memory speeds when is use on a pc (ie) is it better to have 2 x 1GB @ pc2700 on a dual channel mobo or 2 x 512GB @ pc3200 or above?

I understand that the pc speed will be a bottleneck but was wondering if there was an equation to work out the best\most productive combination in terms of speed?


tia

[TeaLeaf]

Originally posted by Dingo@Aug 17 2004, 01:17 PM
Hi,

   was wondering if any of you could tell me if there is an equation for memory speeds when is use on a pc (ie) is it better to have 2 x 1GB @ pc2700 on a dual channel mobo or 2 x 512GB @ pc3200 or above?

I understand that the pc speed will be a bottleneck but was wondering if there was an equation to work out the best\most productive combination in terms of speed?


tia

Hi Dingo,

How different RAM combinations perform depends on the system etc, but here are some generalisations:

• You will not notice the difference between 2x512MB and 2x1GB unless you are doing something massively RAM intensive, so go for the 2x512MB.
• If your motherboard only supports a 166Mhz FSB (333MHz @ DDR = PC2700) and you only intend to run at stock speeds then PC2700 will do fine, BUT most PC3200 (200MHz FSB = 400 DDR) is now as cheap as PC2700, so buy the PC3200 anyway for future-proofing!
• If you plan to overclock to a 200MHz FSB (PC3200) then get PC3500 to give yourself a bit of headroom.

Hope this helps.
In a straight speed test 2x512MB PC3200 will pee all over 2x1GB PC2700 as the FSB on the PC3200 is running so much faster than for the PC2700.  The fact that there is double the RAM will not matter as it is the speed the data can be pushed in and out per cycle that counts more!

TL.

[Dingo]

Thanks for the quick reply TL