Looking to upgrade my ram

[Shirtbird]

Hello, I was wondering what you guys thought about this. I am looking to upgrade my ram to 2gigs, I intend to play mainly WoW with this pc. Atm I have:
1GB Alienware Dual Channel Low-Latency DDR PC-3200 at 400 MHz-2x, two 512 sticks.

Motherboard: Alienware PCI Express Motherboard with Intel 915G Express Chipset

Is it even worth upgrading my ram if all i plan to do is play world of warcraft?

I have a few questions.

Can you mix and match ram? So could I use
corsair and kingston at the same time for example.

Is there any real benefit in performance between using 2sticks of 512 vs 1 stick of a gig? Thanks

 

[Tox1cThreat]

On WoW upgrading worth: I duno, I dont play WoW.

On Mixing and Matching: Yea, you can mix brands fine, but make sure that the new ram is the same buffer type (Buffered or unbuffered) and might need ECC (not sure if you can have ECC and non ECC Ram, I woudl assume you can but Im not positive)

On benefits of 1 sitck vs. 2: I prefer using 2 sticks personal preference. I used to work for a computer manufacturer adn they alwayed 2 sticks becuase they "Ran better" I dont remember if they mentioned anything else. I guess that by haveing 2 sticks you can push more data through at once rather than being able to hold more on one stick but it has to wait as the controller can only do so much at once.. sounds reasonable anyways.. I doubt that you will see much of a real world difference between the two.

 

[Arumuni]

For gaming, Corsair is a quality brand for a very cheap price.

 

[Elbatrop1]

First off, I can guarantee that you won't need ECC RAM.

Second, in your situation, I wouldn't even bother with 2GB. The only difference I noticed when upgrading 1GB to 2GB is a little more responsiveness in Windows and opening programs. If you spend most of your time in WoW, then I don't think it's really worth your money to get an extra 1GB.

2 sticks vs 1 is only benficial if your mobo supports dual channel (and it does). Only even numbers of RAM sticks will work in dual channel (2 or 4).

You can mix and match RAM. I have come across some difficulties in doing so in the past, but nothing that is unfixable.

 

[PR Gamer]

Yes you can mix brand and MHz on a DDR ex one kingston 400MHz and corsair 266MHz the problem would be both will run at the lowest speed 266MHz. What you can't do is to use Un-buffered and Buferred also known as ECC registered together it will read only the one on the first slot.

 

[Net Raider]

Recently I have contacted both OCZ and Corsair, and the OCZ tech supervisor says that even though both companies are in direct competiton with eachother, Corsair does have the best ram on the market. Although he didn't forget to point out that OCZ is on the heels of Corsair as for catching up with their technology.

 

[Yoad]

^Sounds fishy, I wouldn't tell that my competitor is producing a better product than mine... and OCZ is great.

BTW IMO Its worth to get 2GB Ram, WoW can be VERY demanding at times... especialy on high resolutions and high settings.