2 sticks of 128 or 1 stick 256?

[Richard_Cranium72]

Well, I don't totally agree with the Expert at Crucial.

I partially agree that it doesn't make "much" difference, but this forum is about subtile differences.

It all depends upon your motherboard.

If you have a OEM style mobo, forget any memory tweaking(which I know little about)

If you have a generic motherboard, not OEM then you may be able to engage memory "Interleaving"

Memory Interleaving is to memory as what RAID is to Hard Drives, it writes to both sticks at the same time lowering access time.

My Award BIOS v6 00p shows Memory Interleaving options of Bank 2 and Bank 4

Do NOT ask me what this means http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

DrVette

[jad1097]

That is not quite correct doc.

Memory Interleaving Explored (http://www.2cpu.com/Hardware/mem_interleave/)

[Rhino302]

I would go with the larger stick. Using less power is always a good ideas with today's computers. And one stick of RAM uses less power than 2

[Wilan Wong]

I'll suggest gettin' the 256 stick as well, as you can save free DIMM slots for future upgrades, instead them on 2x 128's. Right now, the 256 ram is so cheap that you can get 2x 256 to get 512mb RAM.. which is plenty of RAM.

[Dudster]

I'm pretty sure that 1 256 stick is better than 2 128 sticks. I once read it in a huge article (that I skimmed through before buying my memory) but I can't remember why it's better http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif (it was a highly technical and quite baffling article)

[Brangwen]

Depends. If you are not concerned about using up Dimm slots, get 2 128MB sticks: in the <u>unlikely</u> event one goes bad, you can still run with the other.

Also, if you have two sticks, you can always lend one to another system and continue uninterrupted with your primary system.

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[Mortis]

I agree with Brangwen. I would rather have a stick of 128 go bad (and have one left) than a 256. However, if you are trying to max your ram, then go with 256. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Mortis

[Fingers]

Am I doing something wrong? ... I've never had a memory module go bad. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

Oh... and I've got 3 more 256MB modules in the mail from Crucial right now. At only $44 a piece, I just can't control myself. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Richard_Cranium72]

So is memory interleaving only good for boards with VIA chipsets, and only specific ones at that.

The conclusion comment-&gt;&gt;

"We have all known the benefits of 4-way interleaving on the VIA chipset based motherboards. It has been shown in many reviews on our site and others."

I'd like to see more reviews on different boards.

Obviously someone somewhere THOUGHT interleaving was a good idea or it would not have been implemented.

DrVette

[Gomer]

Is there any performance differences? If given the choice, is it better to go with one stick or two when the total amount of ram is the same?

[Bovon]

I just asked the tech support people at Crucial the same question when I was ready to order a couple modules. His responce was it does not matter, but to use the larger module in case I wanted to add more later, my DIMM slots would not be filled. He said there was no performance difference between using 2-128 mb modules vs 1-256 module.

[sharder8]

I agree with Bovon findings, but at current prices, I'd just put in two(2) - 256MB sticks and reap the benefits! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Harder

[jad1097]

Interleaving is great. I don't know much about it either.

[arklab2]

FIRST, CHECK YOUR MOBO SPECS !!!

I just upgraded two old Celeron 300A (Hey, they still work great!), both on Abit motherboards with the Intel BX chipset.

The newer one (a BM6) can take the 256M DIMM just fine, BUT the older one (an origional BX6-r1) can only handle 128M DIMM's Max.
And NETHER ONE can use the 512M DIMMs.

Go to the Crucial site, and look up your mobo FIRST !!!

That said (shouted?) its always better to use as few DIMMs as possible, even on VIA's stuff. (Yea, I got one of those, too).

Good Luck, just don't waste your hard earned jack on something that won't work in your computer.