Yet another RAM question (5315)

So, I am about to order some more RAM for my 5315 (has 2 x 512mb atm), and i was wondering what would be better :

1. To buy 2 x 1gb (currently £29.36) and replce the existing RAM with that

or

2. To buy 1 x 2b (currently £30.54)and leave one of the 512 mb in there which would give me 2.5gb


I know that option 1 would probably be better because of dual channel mode or something, but I do alot of media encoding and other Cpu and RAM intensive tasks...

The prices at crucial have been changing a lot recently, and their scanner says it supports max 1gb per slot, but I have read here that it supports 3gb if you have the 2gb in a certain slot.

Please help

duksandfish

 

I'd go with the second option WITHOUT adding the 512MB old stick. Your older ram is probably slower than the new one you're planning to buy, so no matter the speed of your new RAM, the whole 2,5GB pack will run at your 512MB stick speed..And it's better(in my opinion) to leave your system with faster 2GB RAM than with slower 2,5GB RAM.

 

ATG is corrcet... just don't try using 4 gigs in the 5315.... it will cause continous lockups and BSODs

 

May I ask why the 1 x 2gb would be better that 2 x 1gb, when that would be cheaper, and have dual channel mode?

 

Well the whole idea is that in that case you'll have a free slot for future upgrades...but since BigO said that you cannot put 4gb in 5315 than yeah you're right..you can go with 2x1gb..

 

Just curious, what OS are you using ? I added 2 gigs to my rig via the 2 gig on one stick method so I have 2.5 GB total.

 

Vista Home Premium SP1

Also, about the memory speed thing, isn't that limited by the FSB? Because the FSB of the Celeron 530 is 533MHz and the RAM currently installed (2 x 512mb) is also 533 MHz, Wouldn't that mean that if I put faster RAM in (667MHz) it would only run at 533MHz?

So that would mean the 1 x 2gb would probably be best, and if I upgraded my CPU, i could just take out the 512mb and Take advantage of the faster RAM, and Possibly get another 1GB later on.

Anyway I have a while to think about since i'm going on holiday soon, and i won't order till I get back.

duksandfish

 

you have the facts pretty musch correct...

have you upgraded your CPU?? if not no matter what ram you put in the 5315 it will run at 533 due to the celeron using a 533 FSB for the CPU..

and even with an upgraded CPU the 512mb might be more important than the 133MHZ increase in memory speed... ESPECIALLY in VISTA since it is such a memory hog

 

Ok so this make my comments pretty much useless..oh well..

 

the MAJOR ADVANTAGE of (1) 2 gig stick,, is you keep the second slot open for a future upgrade of either a 1 gig stick of the same speed,,, or if you ever upgrade to VISTA 64bit,,, then you could use (2) 2 gig sticks..

the 5315's chipset supports 4 gigs... but the current BIOS DOES NOT

but in the future i see that problem being resolved.. so i'd buy (1) 2gigabyte piece of PC6400 SO-DIMM...

you can keep a 512mb in the second slot.. it may give you a boost especially if using VISTA... but in XP it would slow you down