RAM Question

[chinis]

I've been looking to upgrade my ram and was wondering about the PC5300/5400 thing. My motherboard takes DDR2 667MHz, but on newegg.com there's 2 types, PC5300 and PC5400. I was just wondering if it matters which one? And also if dual-channel would be better than 2 single-channel sticks? This is my motherboard http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=307 and I can't tell if dual-channel works on it. And the ram I was looking at what this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231110
Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Carste]

I don't recall there being much if any difference between 5400 and 5300, but I have looked at this stuff in a while.

Somebody will likely give you a better answer for those memory questions, but I did want to make sure of one thing (more something for you to make sure of). I noticed you are looking at 4 GB of ram. Make sure you are using a 64 bit OS otherwise you are just wasting ram.

Edit: Looking at some of the reviews of this board, it's all single channel.

 

[chinis]

Crap right, I keep forgetting 32-bit only supports like 3.5 or whatever. Hmmmm, well since it's not dual-channel I could just go with a 2gig and a 1gig? I'll give that a try.. Thanks though man!

 

[Tagrineth]

If the pin count on the RAM is compatible with the sockets on your mother board - in other words, if the memory will physically fit into your board - it will be compatible. They made sure to change the socket on every different version of RAM, so that's not an issue.

As far as the PC5300/5400 thing, it looks like there pretty much isn't a difference. All RAM of the same type is pretty much created equally, the difference in clockspeeds comes from the capacity of the chips to handle a higher clock speed. A module packaged and sold as PC5300 might have chips that came from the same silicon wafer as one packaged and sold as PC6400. When they come out of the fab, they cut up the wafer and test the chips' tolerance, and bin them based on that test.

so there probably isn't any difference at all between 5300 and 5400 considering the difference is like 8 MHz.

 

[Nugotugo]

Actually, since you brought it up. 32 bit OS can map 3.5~ GB of memory.. unless using the Physical Address Extension switch in boot.ini. That allows it to access up to 4GB in 32 bit(at least for XP). For those who don't know how to turn on that switch you just add /PAE to the end of your boot.ini file.

 

[johnno25]

dual-channel kicks the crap outta single channel sticks imo

imo paying the extra to get 800mhz vs. 667mhz is worth it if you tend to play a lot of games on your pc. also i noticed that board allows you to overclock 800mhz ram, giving you some performance advantages there.

 

[chinis]

dual-channel kicks the crap outta single channel sticks imo

imo paying the extra to get 800mhz vs. 667mhz is worth it if you tend to play a lot of games on your pc. also i noticed that board allows you to overclock 800mhz ram, giving you some performance advantages there.

It doesn't allow me, it automatically overclocks 800mhz sticks, lol. But my computer runs hot as hell, so moving down to the 667mhz ones. Only online game I play is FF so.. shouldn't make much of a difference.