Dual Pack Needed?

[SBGTF]

Okay, my budget is getting tight and with RAM prices tighter every day. I'm looking at building an A64 system with an nForce3 250gb board (as soon as I can get my hands on the mobo). The system primary goal in life is to game, game, and oh did I mention gaming. I don't overclock, and I'd like to get 18 months+ out of the system. I've had my current rig much longer.

The question is how much trouble am I in if I buy one stick of 512MB PC3200 now and another 512MB in the fall. This isn't a dual channel board, so that shouldn't matter. I'm guessing I'd still need to match the timings (I'm looking at 2-3-2 for the first stick).

Also, Will 512 be enough (Win XP Home OS)?

[metallicat666]

512mb should be enough.
event hough the board isnt dual channel you should still try to match the timings of the ram.

[Yawgm0th]

The board seriously isn't dual channel? You would see noticable performance increases from dual channel. If you haven't already bought the board, you should consider something else.

In any case, just buy the same stick. Even if you have to buy it somewhere different than the first, you should be able to get the same stick. Doing that should take care of the problems with timings and such.

I aslo think you get more than 18 months out of this system easily. But if you make sure to get a socket 939 board (assuming you haven't already purchased the motherboard), you would have upgrading options that could make this system last as long as five years without becoming slower than your average computer and in need of replacement.

[MikeP]

512MB is plenty. Unless you are running something in the background or just an App that will use more than 512MB after installing the OS.

Mike

[wayout44]

The nForce3 250 should be out in socket939 dual channel configuration next month for the new 939pin Athlon64's that will also be out then supporting dual channel memory so be a little patient.

[Yawgm0th]

If you're using an Athlon 64, you really should get 1GB. Sure, 512MB should be enough, but you will get noticable performance increase in almost any program, especially games. Even on a much weaker processor you would, but on an A64 the difference is much more pronounced.

[amd_man2005]

The board seriously isn't dual channel? You would see noticable performance increases from dual channel. If you haven't already bought the board, you should consider something else.

Athlon64 isn't a dual channel CPU, only the Athlon 64 FX is

[Yawgm0th]

Forgot about that... Not suprising, I didn't even find that out except accidently when I noticed all the socket 754 were lacking in dual channel cpabilities. Bleh... I can't remember what I eat for breakfast either, anyway.

What do you care for anyway, with all of your damn P4s lying around crunching and gaming... blah blah blah I'm just mumbling now...

[wayout44]

Athlon64 isn't a dual channel CPU, only the Athlon 64 FX is

The socket 939 Athlon64's will be.

[amd_man2005]

Athlon64 isn't a dual channel CPU, only the Athlon 64 FX is

The socket 939 Athlon64's will be.

Will be being the key word there...we're talking about a current situation here

[Yawgm0th]

No point in fighting over it... :cheers:

If SBGTF doesn't get this for a couple months, the socket 939 boards and CPUs should be out, so it doesn't matter anyway.

[wayout44]

Athlon64 isn't a dual channel CPU, only the Athlon 64 FX is

The socket 939 Athlon64's will be.

Will be being the key word there...we're talking about a current situation here

Socket 939 hardware is only a few weeks away so why not wait a little? :roll:

[Yawgm0th]

No point in starting an argument over this.... It was my fault anyway for not thinking rightt....

[joshuajames]

here, so you guys will stop fighting with each other i will post a noob quesiont to get you guys off of that topic and possibly somewhat made at me, based on that you get noob questions like this by the hundreds, i'm guessing it can get quite annoying. ANYways, towards the beginning of the post it talked about timing your ram, how would you go about doing that. also, for amd-man what are the differences and similarities in amd proccesors and intel processors (the new ones, i don't care about the old ones cause that's not what i will be using). also, i'm sure YOUR preference is amd, hints your name, but which do most of YOU think is better and why?
thanks,

josh

[metallicat666]

the timings are how long a delay there is before reads and writes take place on the memory. to change them you need to change the timings in the BIOS. lower is better.

im an amd fanboy so i would say the amd is better.
differences with current processors:AMD64 is 64 bit, amds do more work per clock cycle so can run at a slower speed, they run cooler than p4s.
p4 has more memory bandwith, higher clock speeds, better overclockability.