Dual Channel RAM

[Castle]

Hello, my old computer a P3 800 was feeling old so I went out today
and got a new P4 3.0G Prescott, and a Asus P4P800s motherboard, 1G of
DDR RAM, and a 500W powersupply. (I have a Nvidia ASUS GeF4Ti4800). I
was going to get dual channel RAM and the required dc Asus mb. It was
another Aussie $130+ more ($US100) but the shop dude told me I
wouldn't really notice the difference. I feel a bit silly now for not
getting the Dual RAM. Should I go back and try to get the Dual-C RAM?
Or is it not such a big performance increase?

I play games like Medieval Total War, Mechcommander2 and I'm waiting
for Rome TW.

Regretful!
CC

 

[Never anonymous Bud]

Fresh from an Iraqi prisoner interrogation (e-mail address removed) (Castle)
smirked:

Hello, my old computer a P3 800 was feeling old so I went out today
and got a new P4 3.0G Prescott, and a Asus P4P800s motherboard, 1G of
DDR RAM, and a 500W powersupply. (I have a Nvidia ASUS GeF4Ti4800). I
was going to get dual channel RAM and the required dc Asus mb. It was
another Aussie $130+ more ($US100) but the shop dude told me I
wouldn't really notice the difference. I feel a bit silly now for not
getting the Dual RAM. Should I go back and try to get the Dual-C RAM?
Or is it not such a big performance increase?

You mean you got a single stick of 1GB??

No, it's unlikely you'll see any difference by going to dual-channel.





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[Nate Edel]

Hello, my old computer a P3 800 was feeling old so I went out today
and got a new P4 3.0G Prescott, and a Asus P4P800s motherboard, 1G of
DDR RAM, and a 500W powersupply. (I have a Nvidia ASUS GeF4Ti4800). I
was going to get dual channel RAM and the required dc Asus mb. It was
another Aussie $130+ more ($US100) but the shop dude told me I
wouldn't really notice the difference. I feel a bit silly now for not
getting the Dual RAM. Should I go back and try to get the Dual-C RAM?
Or is it not such a big performance increase?

How do you have 1GB without having dual channel? One 1GB DIMM? If so, why
not just save til you can bring it up to 2C by adding a second 1GB DIMM?

 

[Tony Hill]

Hello, my old computer a P3 800 was feeling old so I went out today
and got a new P4 3.0G Prescott, and a Asus P4P800s motherboard, 1G of
DDR RAM, and a 500W powersupply. (I have a Nvidia ASUS GeF4Ti4800). I
was going to get dual channel RAM and the required dc Asus mb. It was
another Aussie $130+ more ($US100) but the shop dude told me I

Yeouch! They were definitely trying to rip you off there or
something! The difference between single and dual-channel setups
should be roughly $20-$30 or so! My regular on-line vendor carries
the single-channel Asus P4P800S (i848 chipset) motherboard for $112
CDN ($~80 US) and the dual-channel Asus P4P800 SE (i865PE chipset)
motherboard for $146 CDN (~$105 US). Otherwise the rest of the system
was the same.

My guess is that the store you were buying from just didn't bother to
carry any of the i865PE boards and was offering the overly-expensive
i875-based motherboards as the ONLY dual-channel option. Those boards
would set you back an extra $100 and aren't worth it, but the i865PE
boards are quite reasonably priced and provide nearly identical
performance to their more expensive counterparts.

wouldn't really notice the difference. I feel a bit silly now for not
getting the Dual RAM. Should I go back and try to get the Dual-C RAM?
Or is it not such a big performance increase?

It's not a huge difference, though the difference does exist. Roughly
speaking you're probably looking at a 3.0GHz chip on a single-channel
board being about equivalent to a 2.8GHz chip on a dual-channel board.
ie not a very big different and not one that you're likely to notice,
but depending on the cost of the components it might be worthwhile.