2GB users - need your help

[oldhand]

There is no review anywhere that benchmarks 4x512mb sticks on a 939 board but I know someone out there must be running with this config! All I want to know is how fast you can overclock your memory at 1T command rate. If you set your memory to 1T, how fast can you run the FSB and at what ratio/timings? Someone help please! I really need to know if 4x512 fast sticks are quicker than 2x1GB.

 

[bofkentucky]

Normally you will see slightly better performance using the smaller number of sticks, but it should be negligible change in latency. It basically boils down to keeping everything all on the correct timing.

Take one of my Sun servers at work, it basically uses PC100 SDRAM, in a quad channel config. The timings and clock speeds aren't agressive, but its rock solid stable and provides similar memory bandwidth to Dual Channel PC3200 DDR ram (Or a single channel of DDR-II 400), at slightly higher latencies.

Its all a tradeoff, your 4x512 will probably be cheaper, but if you decide to bite the bullet and max out memory to 4 or 8GB down the road, you'll have to replace all 4 sticks.

 

[Xed]

pretty sure you need to run at 2t with 4 dimm's which has a noticeable drop in performance on an a64 setup

 

[oldhand]

As I understand it the DDR400 spec doesn't allow runnning two sticks on the same channel at 200mhz, so motherboards either drop the timing to 2T or set the memory clock to 166mhz and leave it at 1T.

I'm curious whether a 4 DIMM config can be run any faster than this - if the m/b doesn't allow you to set the divider any higher than 166 you could still run up the FSB to get a faster memory clock at that ratio.

Unless I find any more info my choice will be the 2x1GB sticks becuase even with their relatively slow timings I think they will be faster than DDR333 at fast timings or DDR400 at 2T. Unfortunately the non-generic ones are really expensive.

Someone out there must berunning this config - I want some numbers!

 

[RichPLS]

I have a 875chipset with 4x512mb Corsair TwinX Pro at 2-2-2-5 rock solid stable, no complaints.

 

[Markfw]

Mine is running at DDR400 with 4x512 and 1T (but I have 2 cpu's and registered memory)

 

[muppet]

interesting, i wouldnt mind knowing as well

thing is though, you cant get any decent 1gb modules anyway, certainly havent seen any running at the slower pc3200

 

[divide by zero]

I have the same question too.

I"m planning on getting an MSI Neo2 Platinum, probably the AMD 64 3200+, Winchester, 939 pin.

I'd like to overclock it as much as possible at 1T. How much less will it overclock with

4x512MB or 2x1G of memory compared to 2x512MB ?