2gbx2 or 1gbx4

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beelzibub

Limp Gawd
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Jul 11, 2007
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I am planning on running Vista Home Premium 64-bit on a Q6600 and a yet to be determined motherboard (suggestions appreciated). I'd like to overclock somewhere around 3.2gHz with air cooling (TR Ultra 120 Extreme and Scythe S-Flex F), and after some research I think I've found that DDR2 800 will work fine for this overclock. Now my question is between buying 2gbx2 or 1gbx4. I've read that running four sticks of memory sometimes has problems with stability and/or overclocking. What do you guys think?
 
I am in the same situation as you right now. I was told and I have read that 2x2gb is the way to go because an overclock on the memory is only as good as the worst stick so I was told to go by 2x2gb because of that. I am going to be going Patriot Extreme performance 2x2gb and hopefully that will work, only $20 more than the 4x1gb I was going to be getting.
 
I went with 4x1gb. I've already ordered it, but haven't built the system yet.

Hopefully there won't be any problems?
 
2x2GB should be the way to go for you because you only need/want 800mhz ram. 2GB sticks leave more room for upgrade and some motherboards don't play nice with 4 sticks of ram. The patriot 2GB sticks don't overclock well, but do 800mhz just fine and are pretty affordable.

4x1GB is better if you need high speed ram that is still pretty affordable.Higher speed ram gives you more flexibility while overclocking.
 
LOL, I posted this exact topic the other day and got completely the opposite in advice...

I was thinking 2x2 would be superior myself.
 
what motherboard? if you seriously plan on overclocking, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

most 2x2gb kits don't oc well, except for the high end mushkin kits
with 4x1gb, you will most likely hit the limit of the motherboard's memory controller before you top out the ram... and they will run a lot hotter, more ram, less space, etc.
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
what motherboard? if you seriously plan on overclocking, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

most 2x2gb kits don't oc well, except for the high end mushkin kits
with 4x1gb, you will most likely hit the limit of the motherboard's memory controller before you top out the ram... and they will run a lot hotter, more ram, less space, etc.
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Not only what motherboard but also what chip you're trying to overclock....
 
I am actually in the same boat here. I want 4gb of ram but am unsure of what overlocking ram to get. I will be going with the eVGA 680i A1 board and the x6800 core 2 extreme processor.
 
ScYcS said:
Not only what motherboard but also what chip you're trying to overclock....
Click to expand...

that doesn't matter quite as much unless it leads to awkward problems between the memory ratios and cpu multi or you have an AMD :p
 
Well, it kind of matters because in order to reach 3.2 on the Q6600, he would use a 8x400 setup most likely, so the ram would run at 800mhz. There is no overclock needed if you buy 2x2GB PC6400 sticks then, so the overclocking ability is not so much an issue and heat and stabilty becomes more of an issue.
 
ScYcS said:
so the ram would run at DDR2-800
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fix't! :D:D

but yeah, if you get something like a 6300... have fun, a good motherboard is needed as well, since you might be wanting to do in the 500mhz range on that bus clock :eek:
 
ScYcS said:
:( and you know what? I'm always slightly annoyed when i see others making this mistake....
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that makes two of us. i've been on a vendetta lately, against that, mislabeling fsb speed and calling memory chips "D9" :p
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
that makes two of us. i've been on a vendetta lately, against that, mislabeling fsb speed and calling memory chips "D9" :p
Click to expand...
yeah, our little MHz VS DDR frequency police are out in full force with the two of us on the prowl. we just need to fire off some e-mails to memory manufacturers to get them to quite advertising 1200MHz DDR2 modules ;)

as for the actual topic of this post...i have personal experience trying to clock 4x1Gb on 680i and 965P motherboards. personally, i would stay away from 4x1GB on 680i. it usually takes some work to get everything running correctly. with that said, manual timings and testing is involved in getting 4x1GB to run stable in a 965P board as well but it seems to be a much easier time at it. if of course you won't be clocking the memory past DDR800 (400MHz :D ) then it doesn't really matter...anything past DDR800 can get tricky with any setup.

2x2GB kits are the way to go IMO, if your willing to cough up the $$$ for the Mushkin kit that seems to run really well. HTH
 
I apoligize for being such a noob, but what if I changed the multiplier and fsb on the Q6600 to say 7x460 or 6x535. Wouldn't I see any gain from the higher fsb speed? If not, it seems that I should just get some midline PC6400 and call it a day. The other concern I would have is if for some reason the G0 Q6600 easily overclocks to 3.6gHz or better on good air cooling. Then I could go with say 8x450 or 7x515. Is this possible for the midline PC6400, or should I go with something like the Mushkin PC6400 I mentioned earlier or even to PC8500? Thanks for all your input so far, I am learning alot!
 
fsb speed actually has a decent impact on overall performance, unless switching to the higher speed changes the internal chipset strap to the next higher one, where all the timings that you can't adjust are loosened up, so performance actually drops. it's one of those things where the only acceptable answer is: "try both and see which is faster for you" ;)

3oh6 said:
personally, i would stay away from 4x1GB on 680i.
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and AM2, unless their memory controllers have gotten a lot better over the last couple months :(
 
Eclipse:
When did you change your mind about Mushkin?!?! :eek: I'm still wary of them after that exchange you and I had with Sentential last year... (Sorry, don't remember exact dates.) I still haven't bought anything of theirs, and have cautioned several of my friends away.

BTW:
I've had bad experiences with 650i running with 4 sticks (4x512MB), kept getting BSOD's. Finally changed a BIOS setting for stability, but it only saw 1GB total after that. I haven't had any experience with 680i, but I'd be cautious with nVidia's chipset and four slots.
 
mavalpha said:
Eclipse:
When did you change your mind about Mushkin?!?! :eek: I'm still wary of them after that exchange you and I had with Sentential last year... (Sorry, don't remember exact dates.) I still haven't bought anything of theirs, and have cautioned several of my friends away.
Click to expand...

after talking to some people people who work there or affiliated with them. sentential seems to have dissapeared. the only thing i'm really worried about right now is the sticks that reviewers get. that hp2-6400 kit i played with a while back seemed somewhat exceptional after it was all tweaked out. then again, before i put any work into it, they didn't clock all that well, comparatively, so i have mixed feelings on that :p
 
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