Sorry for such a newbie question, I know that dual channel ram needs to be installed in pairs but..... I started with 512mb (2 x 256mb) of ddr pc3200 ram....I bought a stick of 512, and I plan on buying another stick of 512mb. My motherboard supports 2GB of ram. For the time being, I guess my system is running in single channel mode? Now would I get the same performance from 512mb running in dual channel, as I would from 1GB running in single channel? I don't feel like there's much of difference in speed. I feel like I should have just waited and bought the 2 sticks of 512mb together. Would love to hear some feedback! Thanks.
Please Help!
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Nitestick
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ok the thing people often confuse is that "more ram=faster performance". this is not true, if you have enough ram to load system processes, programs and games more ram will not make it run faster. it has to do with the quality of the ram, latencies, frequency and bitwidth.so if say 512mb loads all you need adding more will not improve performance at all. take for instance if i never use more than 1gb of my ram but i swapped it for 2gb of pc2700 2.5-3-3-6 (those numbers are latency) running in single channel. the 1gb of ram i have now would perform better.
thank you to everyone that responded! I am still a little bit confused....So what you are saying nitestick, is that if I use less than 512mb on a regular basis, then the 512mb at dual channel, would be a better choice than the 1gb running at single channel? So i will remove my 512mb stick and leave the 2 x 256mb sticks? And you are saying it will run better? Sorry for any confusion, I'm really trying to understand, I've tried researching this specicif question, to no avail. PLEASE HELP! 
Nitestick
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basically you need to know the specs of the ram. generally you can run smaller quantities of ram at higher speeds. for instance 2x512mb vs 2x1gb when you don't use more than 1gb like i said earlier. if the performance specs are better then use the highest performing setup. having more ram only increases the speed of your pc if your pc has to use the "pagefile" a lot. the pagefile is a file on your hdd that is also called "virtual ram". if you do not have enough ram the pc will swap some contents of your ram to this file to allow more things to be loaded. this slows down performance significantly.
what sort of things do you use your pc for? if we know we can say which is better. you would probably be better with more ram.
what sort of things do you use your pc for? if we know we can say which is better. you would probably be better with more ram.
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