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[deejayry]

I've just ordered 2 sets of 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS DDR PC3200 CAS 2-3-3-6
And i'm wondering what the best config would be?

Do i run the memory in 4Gb Single channel or 2x2Gb dual channel?

My computer is mostly used as a number cruncher, photo/image editing often with large 60mb+ 32bit files, and performing some serious image alignment, stacking and detail enhancement routines, it is not uncommon to have certain apps with 30+ large image files in memory.

I also use it for the usual bit of internet, email, and the occasional bit of gaming (a bit oldskool i know but the only game i really play is Toca Racedriver 3)

[divideByZero]

good god, how much did that cost? i bought some ddr400 last year and the cheapest i could get was ~$100 for 2x1gb. Anyway, it all depends on your mobo, most modern ddr boards should support dual channel with all four slots occupied. The only problem you may run into is that it could drop the speed back to ddr333.

Do i run the memory in 4Gb Single channel or 2x2Gb dual channel?

If you have four 1gb sticks of ram how would you accomplish this?

[urgannagru]

If you have four 1gb sticks of ram how would you accomplish this?

for dual channel to work you just need an even number of memory modules. here is a good explanation of what dual channel is / how it works
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/133

i don't really know of any disadvantages to running dual channel

[deejayry]

good god, how much did that cost? i bought some ddr400 last year and the cheapest i could get was ~$100 for 2x1gb.

They werent exactly cheap, each set was £62.47 which works out to $101.85 at the current exchange rate.

If you have four 1gb sticks of ram how would you accomplish this?

Oops, that was a typo should have read 2x1GB Dual Channel.

for dual channel to work you just need an even number of memory modules. here is a good explanation of what dual channel is / how it works
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/133

i don't really know of any disadvantages to running dual channel

Thanks for that link it cleared a few things up for me, originally i was under the impression that in dual channel mode the amount of memory avaliable was half of the physical amount installed.

[bliq]

My question would be why buy DDR new?  My other question would be, wouldn't a new mobo, cpu, and 4GB of DDR2 for $200 be a faster number cruncher than plopping $200 down for old RAM running a possibly still somewhat fast but undoubtedly obsolete CPU and chipset? 

[urgannagru]

wouldn't a new mobo, cpu, and 4GB of DDR2 for $200 be a faster number cruncher than plopping $200 down for old RAM running a possibly still somewhat fast but undoubtedly obsolete CPU and chipset? 

This +1

[divideByZero]

They werent exactly cheap, each set was £62.47 which works out to $101.85 at the current exchange rate.

ouch, i just spent $350 and got a whole new rig sans proc and hdd.