Any difference between a 1GB stick of memory Vrs. 2x512Mb?

[rackoon]

So any way, I thought it would be fun to put together a computer for my MAME cabinet so I got this book on how to assemble your own computer but it always leaves out the reason for using certain parts. I also went down this road because I thought I could use some parts from a friend's old computer like a P4 2.66 processor and save some money.
   
   My motherboard  supports up to 2GB of memory but I was told that 1GB is plenty for MAME and a few PC games.

    All I need now is a hard drive and some memory. I allready got some good advice regarding hard drives on this forum and now I have a few question regarding memory.

    Is there any advantage to ether running a single 1GB STICK of memory or duel set up like 2x512MB. My mother board supports PC3200?

    Is there any reason I shouldn't by the cheapest brand memory I can find?

[Generic Eric]

your mothoer board has a max of 2G, how many slots does it support?

If you could find a 1G stick for the same price as the 2x512 sticks, you should get the 1G stick.  Its just better utilization of your capacity.  Hard to say more without knowning how many slots you have.

[pointdablame]

There's really only two things to consider, and Eric hit one of them already.

1) If you only have 2 ram slots, your motherboard could only have 2gigs with 2 sticks of 1gig Ram... if you get 2x512, you'd need to get rid of the 512 sticks in order to upgrade.

2) If you are using a dual channel motherboard, and would like to take advantage of dual channel, you'll need 2 identical sticks of ram.  In this case, the single 1gig stick would not utilize Dual Channel, but the 2x512 (or 2x1gig) would.

Thats really all there is to consider.

[rackoon]

I have two slots for memory on my motherboard and it will support a duel channel set up.

Whats the advantaged of a duel channel set up?

[shmokes]

Speed.

[pointdablame]

Speed.

yup...

Dual channel basically doubles the memory bandwith.  Now, people familiar with the tech behind it will want to get into a huge fight with me about my last sentence, but BASICALLY, that's what it does.  It should be faster than a single stick, and if you have the option, I'd go with a dual channel set up.

[hyiu]

2 x 512 mb cannot hold a 700 mb file... (just in case you want something like a unzipped cd image or something...)

you'll need to split the image, zip it, or something....

a 1G one will hold without pblm...

well, 1G just simpler....
why carry 2 when you can carry 1 ??

[pointdablame]

2 x 512 mb cannot hold a 700 mb file... (just in case you want something like a unzipped cd image or something...)

you'll need to split the image, zip it, or something....

a 1G one will hold without pblm...

well, 1G just simpler....
why carry 2 when you can carry 1 ??

what in the world are you talking about ?

Are you talking about USB flash drives? which have NOTHING to do with this conversation.  We're talking about system ram here... and you'll have no problems manipulating a 700mb file with 512mb or ram... there is no direct correlation, and even if there was the page file would make it irrelevant.

I think you're a bit confused

[SOAPboy]

2 x 512 mb cannot hold a 700 mb file... (just in case you want something like a unzipped cd image or something...)

you'll need to split the image, zip it, or something....

a 1G one will hold without pblm...

well, 1G just simpler....
why carry 2 when you can carry 1 ??

what in the world are you talking about ?

Are you talking about USB flash drives? which have NOTHING to do with this conversation.  We're talking about system ram here... and you'll have no problems manipulation a 700mb file with 512mb or ram... there is no direct correlation, and even if there was the page file would make it irrelevant.

I think you're a bit confused

Yeah i was thinking the same exact thing..

[Scott84]

Go with the 1GB stick only... cause eventually you can get another for very cheap down the road, adding ram never hurts! 

[ChadTower]

Speed?  He's building a MAME machine, not a scientific analysis box.  Outside of the "how many physical slots do you have" issue he will never notice the difference between 1 stick or 2.

[Harry Potter]

Exactly. The only place I could think where dual channel RAM would be advantageous is server apps.

I got it anyways but I tried running my system in both modes and I didn't notice any difference (I ran raytracing tests from lightwave).

[jbox]

99 times out of 100 you should always go for the single bigger X (whatever X is) for your non-lead boxen. That way when the time comes to scrap them, there is a better chance of re-using those parts then if you bought all little pieces. Almost all the parts in my two non-lappy machines are salvage.

[hyiu]

2 x 512 mb cannot hold a 700 mb file... (just in case you want something like a unzipped cd image or something...)

you'll need to split the image, zip it, or something....

a 1G one will hold without pblm...

well, 1G just simpler....
why carry 2 when you can carry 1 ??

what in the world are you talking about ?

Are you talking about USB flash drives? which have NOTHING to do with this conversation.  We're talking about system ram here... and you'll have no problems manipulating a 700mb file with 512mb or ram... there is no direct correlation, and even if there was the page file would make it irrelevant.

I think you're a bit confused

ohhh.... sorry then.... I guess I'm really confused.....
 

[shmokes]

Speed?  He's building a MAME machine, not a scientific analysis box.  Outside of the "how many physical slots do you have" issue he will never notice the difference between 1 stick or 2.

Definitely true if all he's doing is MAME.  In fact, why not just put in a single 512 MB stick if all he's doing is MAME?  Nevertheless, "Speed" is the correct answer to his question.  And many "MAME boxes" do a lot more than just play MAME, including those that do nothing but run the Arcade cabinet.  Mine, for example, plays lots of racing games and, seeing as the racing games in MAME don't hold a candle to things like Rallysport Challenge or Need for Speed, or Driver, or NASCAR, or Midnight Club, my MAME box needs to actually run a decent processor with a decent graphics card and a fair amount of RAM.

[ChadTower]

Even so, the difference between two sticks at 512 each and 1 at a gig would NEVER be noticeable.  He'd have to be doing hardcore time critical floating point based scientific analysis where completing in 4.7 hours rather than 5 hours was important.

No game anywhere for any platform does anything like that.  The difference in the two given scenarios here is irrelevant compared to OS tweaks and things like that.