JR - yeah, I thought this too . . .future proofing - the guy actually said it - I was well impressed. . But I wanted to know if there were any technical reasons making 4x512 work slower or whatever than the 2x1gb? Okay, this might be a daft idea - but I need to know.

I hope the company has got its sums wrong but the UG to the 2x1gb option is well . . very exspensive. I'm talking UG, not as well as here! I'll get back to them . . seems a load of cash . .

Thanks JR,

Grazie

I don’t believe there is any difference performance wise. As long as ALL your memory is the same type and capacity, the mobo will work in DDR mode. If ANY of the memory is a different type or capacity then DDR is disabled.

Larger memory usually costs more than two smaller ones. I’m not sure if it’s the fabrication process or they just know you want that larger ones so they charge more. If it’s too expensive then just go with 4x512 and worry about upgrading later. The good news is that memory prices will only get cheaper so it might not be a big deal later to upgrade. BTW, I am only putting 1GB in my new PC and I’m using 2x512 so use that as a gauge. (I’m telling you to buy 1GB and I’m buying 512MB) It all comes down to what you can afford. It’s much easier to spend someone else’s money than your own. ;-)

~jr

Thanks JR ~ might I just say I'm still shaking with rage at the "other" thread not good, I may just go outside for a long cleansing walk ~ but yes, you give good advice. In reality the price differential is either deciding on one or two 17 inch TFTs screen AND the 5.1 speaker system UG - that's the difference - yeah?

Thanks again JR ~ still haven't calmed down . . . .

Grazie

Grazie,
2 GB is a fair amount of RAM for openers, I'm not cerain how much of it VV will make use of anyway. i do know you rapidly hit dimishing returns with RAM so I'd go with the cheapest option. the latest test I saw on the new Corsair RAM modules found very little improvement in CPU performance from making the RAM run faster as well.

I've never fitted more RAM to a PC, by the time my apps / OS could use it the whole machine is getting past it and the RAM that I have is then too slow for the new mobo as well.

I did see someone on one of the forums talking about a Tynan mobo with 24GB of RAM, 20GB of it RAM disk. Seems it ran VV extremely smoothly, somthing about 17 tracks with 16 keys and realtime playback even with HD.

Just to make you think some more........

4 x 512MB SIMMs v 2 x 1GB can be faster in theory on some motherboards.

On certain systems they utilise memory interleaving which can speed access to and from memory (the memory needs time to "recover" between memort accesses so interleaving takes bits across the banks) - not sure these days which systems boards utilise this tends to be available on workstation platforms rarther than PC based.

Thing is you would not really be able to tell the difference.

I reckon 1GB is more than enough with XP/Vegas I am not convinced they utilise more than 1GB that well.

If the difference in cash is between some of the other things mentioned I would stick with 1GB

did that help :-)

>future proofing

2GB of RAM is a *lot*. You're either trying to run a lot of apps simultaneously or you want a massive RAM preview in Vegas. Either way, it seems like overkill.

One thing to remember is that when its time to upgrade to more RAM, the larger chips will have come down in price. It may be cheaper simply to throw out the old 512s and install 1024s.

I'd first look at 2x512, then *adding* 2x1024 down the road as needed. But first you'd need to check for DDR enabled under that scenario, i.e., does DDR work with 2x512+2x1024. Sorry I have no cluee about the answer.

PAW & RMD

Thanks lads!

The deed is in fact done - I'll be having 2gb ram - the extra 2 strips of 512 was a no brainer for me . . so there you have it . . and hopefully in a handful of days I'll be boring you all rigid with the things I can do with this MONSTA!

I'm tioppping this off with 2 17" Samsung flatties . . pleeeeese domn't tell me they aren't good!! - I'll weep . . . nah, no I wont . . . he he he . . .

If I've missed somebody off my list of gratitude, please put it down to a majorly senior . . .errrm . . . what's the word . . it'll come to me in a . .minute? Ah, moment!

Now the fun starts . . I've gotta clear out my edit pit and throw away all sorts of detritus . . . y'know, I've even got a copy of od "DeskPress" - a publishing programme that worked on DOS on top of GEM!!! - HA! . . .

Cheers

Grazie

> The deed is in fact done

Ya’ gotta admire a man who can make a decision and run with it. ;-)

(...and I thought I was the only one who ran GEM on a PC)

Congratulations and Good luck,

~jr