I think that if you fill all three slots you are running your memory in dual
channel mode.

Check your manual to see what it says, but my Epox 8RDA3+ (nforce2 ultra)
manual says, "In three DIMMs memory configuration, the DIMMs can be located
on all DIMM sockets in 128-bit mode."

I'll agree that for games 1 gig is getting to be more a necessity than
something nice to have.  Games like Battlefield Vietnam and some of the just
released maps with Desert Combat Final run very choppy with only 512 MB of
RAM because of the frequent disk activity.  However, I don't know if you'll
easily notice the difference, if you already have 1 GB of memory and you
bump that up to 1.5 GB.

You might use the WinXP system monitor (administrative tools > performance)
and see how much physical memory is currently being used in the games you
play.  Maybe look at the number of page faults and how much of your swap
file is being used, as well.

I've been meaning to do that myself with 1 gig installed, but I haven't,
yet.  When I looked at the numbers with 512MB of memory, it seemed that the
game sucked up all the available RAM pretty quickly, and there were fairly
frequent page faults and hits on the hard drive.

John Sproule

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Favre" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 10:07 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] 1gb PC3200 Dual Channel vs. 1.5 GB PC3200


> Is there a benefit of running 2 sticks of 512k PC3200/DDR400 in dual
> channel mode vs. 3 sticks of the same memory (for a total of 1.5g).  I had
> read that the "sweet spot" for Windows XP was around 1gb of ram.
>
> I play quite a few games (Doom 3, Sims 2, etc.).  Does the dual channel
> outweigh the extra 512k of memory?  I am using OCZ Enhanced Latency
> memory.
>
> ABIT AN7 Mobo w/ Athlon XP 3200+ processor.

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml