more ram?

[Heywould3]

CC has ram on sale for around 20us for 512. i currently have 512 on an xp pro system the mobo is a biostar tforceu supports dual channel. i was thinking about upgrading to 2gigs? 4 512 sticks. the cost isnt much but do you guys think its worth it? or would 1 gig be pleant. i know its all up to what i use it for. but just wonderd n general. i read somewhere that if you run 4 sticks of 512 it will actually slow down the mem a bit. i dont really need 2 gigs but its cheap enough that if it wont slow down the computer ill go for it.

before someone starts to give a mem lesson. im only asking this becasue i did some googleing and couldnt find that data i read about too much mem or to many sticks will slow it down.. thats all im interested in is if its true. i also know the slower cheap ram will slow down the system too. but if all the mem was the same good quality fast timing.

thanks for the help

EDIT: nevermind i found the answer. it was a limitation with AMD 64 chips and the mem controller. it states that with older revisions of the chip if you run more than 2 sticks the memory speed slows the timing to 333 and the mobo need to set the timings to t2. i currently have it set to t1 timigns and 400+ i(its overclocked) so i guess ill just stick with 1 gig.

[neomaine]

I was going to say 1gig was my sweet spot for XP and 2gig for Vista that I'm running now. I noticed big difference from 512 to 1g and 1g to 2g respectively.

[redwudz]

I would agree that 1GB is great for XP. Some graphics programs and probably some CAD/CAM programs can use more, but with video, much over 1GB doesn't seem to make any improvements.

If the memory is matched, it should work for dual channel. Some MBs are very particular, though, and need a exactly matched set. But it's still worth upping the memory to 1GB, even without dual channel.

[Heywould3]

yeah im gonna go for th eupgrade to 1 gig for sure.. the thought was should i go for 2 gigs. and use dual channel. and from what i read my older AMD 64 chips memory controller dont like 4 sticks at 400mhz it will slow to 333mhz but two one gig sticks would work. but i since its so cheep and good mem i was still thinking about getting 4 of them. but i dont use much photo editing SW and CAD almost never. so i think 2 512 sticks would be better for me.

Can anyone think of a reason to get 4 sticks? keeping in mind it will slow the memory down a bit if i do.

[budz]

I have a biostar tforce 6100 mobo w/a 3200+ venice cpu. Over the weekend I installed another 2 sticks of 512mb corsair ram because I removed the pci-express video card. I needed it for a pc that I built for a friend. I didn't think adding another 1 gig of ram would slow down the memory. I'll have to check the memory timing when I get home from work. Since the mobo has built in video which shares memory as well I figured adding another 1 gig wouldn't hurt. The corsair sticks of ram was in another computer where the biostar tforce 6100 mobo died.

[Heywould3]

i have a biostar tforce4 ultra board i use the XGP slot for my AIW AGP card. but the limitation is with the CPU the AMD 64 chips have an integrated mem controller and with the older versios of the chips there was a limit to its ability to handel 4 sticks. i also have a 3200+venice but i think its a early modle and all over the net it talks about the limitation. i currently have mine over clocked to 2.6ghz with memory running at about 434mhz (there are seprate settings for mem and cpu) anyway if i read it right. it says the cpu will reduce the mem to 333 if i add more than two sticks of anything. i also understand it to mean that you cant overclock the mem due to the cpu limitation. again this is on older versions of the cpu.

See this post for a cpuz screen of speeds and timings if interested.
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic251737-210.html#1692648

[videobread]

I have not seen any change with added RAM. I have two systems with 512 PC3200 and one system with 1.5 gig. Can't see any change. I read an article on video editing for my HP xw4100's and it said that more RAM made no difference. The type of RAM is more the issue.

[Heywould3]

i went to CC last night and got two sticks of kingston value ram 512 each. and put them in. at first i had them in next to each other but after reading the manual i noticed that it will only be single channel that way. it was noticeably faster though not supper fast but it was a good upgrade. anyway i put them in as dual channel and it was faster yet. a big improvement over a single 512. i have it over clocked a bit T1 timings and about 435mhz. i had better mem in before and had the timings set a bit higher cas etc. this setup runs a lot better.. i have my other stick on the shelf. adding it to give me 1.5 gigs actually slows it down have to set to T2 timing and only single chennel.

these were 29 bux a peice so i am happy with them.