Power Supply / RAM questions

[hewhohasissues]

Does it matter if you have a power supply that's over adequate for your machine? Are there any advantages/disadvantages?

What's dual channel RAM? And what makes it better than normal RAM

 

[Chrono]

its better to have a power supply that puts out more power than not enough power. Since u have a better one, you can pit more things in later

And yes duel cahnnel ram is better than normal ram, its faster

 

[dhw200]

Rule of thumb about power supply: you cant have too much, but if u have too little, ur comp will prolly crap out on you.

As for dual channel RAM, it measn you have two sticks instead of one. For example, have two sticks of 256MB are superior to a single stick of 512mb. The reason for this? I dont honestly know, but I would guess and say thats its the fact that they can "split the load."

 

[hewhohasissues]

Ahh cause I was looking for dual memory 1gig stick, so 2 X 512mb = 1 Gig Dual memory?

As for PSU I'm currently running my computer at under 400v and with possible upgrades will reach just at the 400v mark but I've seen a 500v power supply... Will that be too much?

 

[dhw200]

There is no such thing as too much power for your comp. Post the specs of ur rig and we can better tell u how much power to get.

About the RAM, 2x 512mb does indeed equal 1 gig of RAM.

And by the way, its watts, not volts. u put 400volts through ur comp it will explode lol

 

[diabloII]

tell us the specs of your comp so we can suggest a power supply

edit: try not to get value ram if you can

 

[dhw200]

if you have absoulutely no intention of overclocking, value RAM will be adequate. However, if u want to overclock, get something better.

 

[Rayne]

400 volts lol

In my understanding of dual channel, is that it accesses both ram sticks at the same time, rather than the full 1gig as one. So its similar to splitting the load but, the 2 sticks can do different tasks.

 

[hewhohasissues]

What's the main advantages of overclocking RAM?

Well what I'll be running will be a gaming rig:

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
1 Gig Ram
111gb Harddrive
1 X CD-R/RW
1 X DVD-R
High end graphics card
3 Fans and lighting mods
Sound Blaster Sound Card
Pentium 4 3.0GHZ

 

[Rayne]

If you overclock your ram, try to keep it the same speed as your fsb or you may get instability and crashes.

The benefits of ocing ram is only when you oc your cpu, to keep things in sync.

You wont notice much difference though.