How do you plan to configure your ram

Be it on an ifl90 or any other configurable Compal models.

Right now I"m stuck between either getting a 2GBx1 and maybe getting a single 1GB later down the line. Or getting the 2GBx2.

Those are just copy and pastes off XoticPC.

 

honestly, my opinion is that 2gb would be enough and not worth paying the premium of 4gb, stick with 2gb and it should last you a good amount of time. i know that i never use up anywhere near the actual 2 gb. also check out powernotebooks.com as i think they have the same ifl90 as well, lemme know if you know any other places that sell the compal barebones... thanks!

 

I would personally get a 2GB stick and upgrade latter.

 

I ordered my IFL90 with one 2GB stick leaving the other slot free for the future.

 

Personally I'd let price at the time of purchase make my decision. RAM prices seem to be very good right now, so I'd likely max out. 2GB + 1 GB is what I'd likely do if the price wasn't that much higher than 1 + 1. But that's just because I would be sticking with XP so I have no real use for more than 3 GB of memory.

Were I going with Vista--I'd definitely be checking to see how much more it would be for 2 + 2. But that's just me...I tend to go all out on my systems when I buy them. Unless the price premium is just too high to justify, that is.

And I'd definitely be getting that extra GB of Robson .

 

i'd customize with 1 gig stick of ram and order the other 1 gig on newegg because it would be cheaper

 

Question regarding dual channel - If I dont have 2 identical sticks will it not work? I tried with my Asus desktop board which is 2 years old, and it actually gave me blue screens if they werent identical pairs.

So its twofold: Will the Ram work as dual channel if they arent identical, and if not, will they work fine just as 2gig total?

Thanks!

 

No, dual channel will not work if they don't respond identically. But on the plus side, that's a very minimal performance loss (around 5% total RAM speed), and it will work perfectly fine in single-channel mode (as long as the RAM itself is supported).

 

Exactly what I needed, thank you. My desktop just gave me random blue screens until I returned the one stick and bought a matching pair (the 2 I had were same version with a diff revision). I would imagine thats been fixed with bios updates since then, but it did leave me a bit confused with the dual channel.

 

Whether it works really depends on how your motherboard manufacturer's configured your stuff. Dual-channel should be able to work with sticks from different companies, and even different speeds.

 

I am gonna get a single stick then get a 2gb stick with identical specifications and maybe get another 2gb stick later if i get 64bit

 

I'm planning on getting a barebones over the summer (haven't decided which - IFL90, S96S, C90s, S37s ) and I'm definitely getting 1x1GB. I will add another 1GB or 2GB stick once I get it, depending on how much cash I have.

 

2GB 1 Dimm just so I can upgrade later

 

Isn't Vista 32 just able to hold 3GB? or is that wrong?

If it's not wrong, then are all the people getting the 2GBx1 upgrading to Ultimate?

 

Ultimate still comes in 32 or 64 bit versions, but you're right 32 bit Windows can only register about 3.5 gig of memory.

I got 2GBx1 to give me options for the future. If I go to a 64 bit OS I'll be able to add another 2GB stick without having to remove a stick.

 

Is it possible to buy one 2 gig stick, and then throw in a single gig later, to make it a total of 3 gigs?

Also, is it worth upgrading to COSAIR RAM?

 

I don't think the Corsair ram is worth it, I mean if it were on a desktop where you OC everything to ****, then sure. But on a laptop I think it's a waste. I don't even think it's possible to OC the cpu of a laptop.

And yeah, you can get 2GB and add another single later to get 3.

 

xotic seems to be the cheapest place selling the IFL90 right now.


I'm getting 2x1gb sticks in dual channel for now and will sell off one and get a 2gb stick when it is necessary.

 

Good call. I'm thinking about doing that with my laptop.

Too bad the 945PM chipset that I have doesn't really support a full 64bit memory access (see page 323 of this datasheet if you want more tech specs).

Basically, if you have a 945PM, don't go over 3GB or so of memory, otherwise you'll have RAM installed that you can't access, even if you have a 64bit CPU and operating system.

 

I just ordered an IFL90 with 2 x 1GB. I know that if I want to upgrade I have to remove (at least) one of them, but I'm sure that by then the prices of memory will have dropped quite a lot.
Besides that I always want two identical sticks so I will have to replace them both anyway.

 

1) 2GB should be plenty for the foreseeable future, at least for the next 3 years or so.

2) Why do you want two identical sticks? Having more memory is better than having dual-channel. If you're on a budget, that's the best way to improve performance.

 

Im getting 1 stick with 2 gigs because ill probably either buy a 1g stick for Vista (Im sticking with XP) or if I needed I will go for a 2g stick to max out the 4gs and buy Ultimate 64 bit.

 

But what about the combination?

I know it's more expensive, but by the time I fel the need to do an upgrade, either memory prices have dropped considerably, or I'm ready for a new machine.
A third option is to sell the old 1GB sticks. Used memory is quite wanted.

 

3 gig of whatever they stick in there...

 

i am going 3gb as well... not an option on the poll :/
but u can get it with 3gb from sager on powernotebooks

 

I chose 3 gig, cause it's more than two and I think the more RAM would out weight the dual channeling. I would go 4 but I'm not wanting to be limited to Vista 64bit.

 

I say go with the single 2GB stick. You may lose ~5-10% versus dual-channel 2x1GB, but you'll be thankful down the road when you can easily upgrade to 4GB.

 

I did the same.

 

I'm slightly confused and hope someone can answer this: I've bought a Dell with 2x512 667Mhz sticks and planning to upgrade to 2 GB myself. So what would get me better performance - buying a 2GB stick to replace one of the 512 sticks (for upgrading convenience) for 2.5 GB total, but no dual channel, or replacing both with 2x 1GB sticks for dual channel?

Also, if I go 2 GB + 512, does it matter which slot order I stick them in?
Thanks.

 

1) as others have said, single vs dual channel is only a gain of 5-10% speed. and

2) it doesnt matter which slot, as long as it's in a RAM slot..lol

 

First post so Hi y'all. I find this spurning of dual channel interesting, having struggled to maintain dual channel in my rigs. Does anyone have data on better performance with 3GB over 2GB dual channel?

Also what are the specs of the memory Sager units. I see Powernotebooks provides a Corsair upgrade. Is it "value" spec or better? How can one find these RAM specs?

Lots of good information on this forum. Thanks to everyone.

 

I think it'll be better to buy 2x1GB now and when the time comes, sell them and change to 2 x 2 GB. Since:
1) 2GB modules are very hard to find
2) The price of 2GB module is equal of 3x of 1GB.
No budget win or loss, just max performance. 5-10%? Please give me a review, if those masseurs are for Napa, then they must be different in Santa Rosa, since the front side buss was upped. And furthermore, there is always a risk different module types may not operate properly. So the best thing IMHO is to buy booth at once.

[added]
Ok, I’ve run some tests (without BSEL mod).
Everest Read: dual - 3904 / single - 3894
Everest Write: dual - 2833 / single - 2810
Everest Copy: dual - 2810 / single - 2684
Everest Latency: dual - 96.8 / single - 98.7
RMMA Memory Stream Dual / Single
3DMark05 Dual - 3728 / Single - 3752
CS:Source Dual - 99.51fps / Single - 97.92fps

Hmmm, NForce2 Ultra 400 was giving greater performance improvement then this. Suppose I was wrong, it's worth of getting only single channel configuration after all. Front Side Bus limits memory system even more then I expected. And it'll be so on until FSB:RAM multiplier will be 1:1 or Intel integrates memory controller like AMD deed.