Gigabyte memory question

G'day All,

I'm looking at buying a new system with a Gigabyte GA-945GM-S2 mobo.

I've downloaded the manual to take a closer look, and I am a bit confused about what they say about the memory configration.

".....1. Dual Channel mode will not be enabled if only one DDRII memory module is installed. 2. To enable Dual Channel mode with two or four memory modules.....you must install them into DIMM sockets of the same color."

Does this mean that if I only have 1x1Gb DDRII, it will not operate as effectively as 2x512Mb DDRII's.

The board has 4 DIMM sockets (all DDRII)

Thanks in advance.

 

yea, u got it. In order to run dual-channel you need 2 sticks. 2x512 would be better than 1x1gig because the sticks could be accessed at the same time rather than trying to cram it all into one, despite the capacity difference. If you got 2x1gig it would be good too which i would seriously consider now with the rapid advancement of PC tech lately.

 

How can you suggest 2Gb of RAM without knowing what the computer will be used for?

brizylad, if you are a gamer, 1Gb of RAM would be good, but 2 would be better. However, if you don't do any gaming or video editing (things that require a bunch of RAM), 2Gb is pretty much overkill. I would go with a minimum of 512Mb and probably recommend 1Gb. In this case, don't worry about dual channel if you already have a 1Gb stick. You wouldn't notice the difference anyway.