Which ram is better?

[comrad]

What would run faster:
1GB of pc-3500 (1 stick)
or 2 sticks of 512mb running at pc-3200

 

[Nubius]

a 1gb is 1gb no matter what, that has nothing to do with Speed.

PC3200 is called that because it has an approximate bandwidth of 3.2gb a second. PC3500 would be 3.5gb a second

But if the PC3500 had REALLY lose timings, opposed to the PC3200 having really tight timings, that extra bandwidth might be lost due to this extremely loose timings.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

I would go with the 2x 512 meg because of the dual channel, and probolly tighter timings.

 

[phosho510]

yea i would go with the 2x 512mb to.i heard nubious explaining something about the more sticks the more faster or something i forgot.

 

[Nubius]

lol nah, the more sticks isn't faster or anything, but like DJ-Chris said, with 2x512 you'll be able to run it in dual channel, BUT that doesn't mean it'll perform faster than the 1gb stick because it will have more bandwidth since it's PC3500, unless like I said the 2x512 PC3200 was like 2-2-2-5 timings and the PC3500 was like 3-4-4-8 which are ridiculously loose and I doubt they are that.

The PC3500 would outperform the 2-2-2-5 dual channel PC3200 if it were say 2.5-3-3-7 timings just purely because of more bandwith although perhaps not by much.

 

[Cunit001]

does it also matter on brand too? or is that for reliability?

how would that compare to a 2x 512mb ddr2 (533mhz)?

 

[comrad]

well all i wanted to know was if more sticks equal more speed. OK thanx. (some guy at frys told me that 2 sticks of pc3200 will be better than one stick of pc3500 1gb stick)

 

[Nubius]

(some guy at frys told me that 2 sticks of pc3200 will be better than one stick of pc3500 1gb stick)

most people that work at those places don't have a clue when it comes to serious computer knowledge.

More sticks in no way effects the speed except for the fact of dual channel which your motherboard and CPU have to support that function.

does it also matter on brand too? or is that for reliability

mostly it's just gotta be identicle specs as I've seen quite a few people running 2 diff brands in dual channel mode, sometimes you could get lucky, or sometimes the board just might be picky and not wanna do it.

how would that compare to a 2x 512mb ddr2 (533mhz)?

How would it compare to what?

Faster frequency = more bandwidth

But like I said, if you're timings are too loose, then you'll lose bandwidth, but in the case of 533 vs 400mhz it wouldn't matter if the 533 was 3-4-4-8 timings and the 400 at 2-2-2-5 as the huge increase in frequency would more than make up for the loose timings.

But it could be equal to say DDR500 at say 3-3-3-8 timings.

That's just an example though, you'd have to do your own benches to truly find out.