Which is Faster & y?

[Mangal Pandey]

I have 2 sticks of RAM 256each providing me a speed of 512MB
my question is which would be faster a single stick of 512MB or 2 sticks of 256?
I'm asking becoz I want to upgrade my RAM, so I'll buy acoording to your sugeestions

[ambandla]

it's always better to buy 2 sticks.

In your case, if you have four memory slots, get two sticks of 256MB of ram if you have two, get single stick so that you can later add another 512MB of ram.

[romeo_8693]

dude that will depend on the speeds of individual ram(clk speed)!
if two 256 rams are working on same frq as 512 256 will be faster cos of lesser access time...

[Third Eye]

I have 2 sticks of RAM 256each providing me a speed of 512MB
my question is which would be faster a single stick of 512MB or 2 sticks of 256?
I'm asking becoz I want to upgrade my RAM, so I'll buy acoording to your sugeestions

Go for 2X256 RAM,also tell us your mobo...

[sakumar79]

Two things have to be taken into consideration for this - 1. Does your motherboard support Dual Channel, and 2. How many RAM slots are available in your motherboard.

If you have only two slots available, you are left with no room to upgrade if you go for 2x256... At that time, you will probably have to throw away one or both modules...

Another thing is, when you have dual channel, memory speed will improve with two identical modules (but usually, the effect will be quite small)...

Also, if you have two modules, and one of them goes wrong, you can temporarily work with one module and the cost of replacement will be lesser...

Therefore, it is incorrect to say that 2x256 is always better than 1x512, and the choice should be made based on above criteria... Weightage for each criteria should be on a case by case basis...

Arun

[shashank4u]

the two same memory modules when ..installed in dula channel mode
give much better performance than single stick ram..
i m personally using 2 kingston 400 memory(256) module in dual channel mode..
and performance is quite gr8..

[Manshahia]

also if u r going for two sticks then if one gets faulty then u will b able to use the other 256 MB

[Mangal Pandey]

Go for 2X256 RAM,also tell us your mobo...
I have a P4i45GV ASRock M/Board.
2 DDR DIMM slots Max. 2GB
As of now, I have installed 2 x 256 MB of RAM @ 333Mhz.

[sridatta]

I have intensionally installed two 256 modules knowing that my mobo support dual channel. You can go through the motherboard specifications whether it support dual channel or not..

[sumeet singh]

well its always better to go for 2 sticks
but for faster go for signe stick

[dcool1]

it ll better if u use 2 memory sticks...
bt it also depends on d no. of ram slots in ur motherboard...