Memory...single channel DDR2 VS dual channel DDR2

  • Thread starter Thread starter Barnaby
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Barnaby

I got a great deal on a CPU/MOBO combo and the only thing I noticed was
single channel instead of dual channel. They have a board for twenty bucks at
Frys which is essentially the same as mine ,except it has dual channels for
the DDR2. Is it worth my while performance wise to swap in a dual channel
board all else being equal ? My system runs great as it is.
XP Home on a CD2 E7200/ECS board combo I got for $109. Also the newer board
has no IDE for my optical drive and I would have to get a SATA CD/DVD burner
to install the new board. Is a SATA CD/DVD drive any faster as far as
transfer speed ?
 
No, the increase in performance will not justify the cost or effort.

You did not mention the memory in your current PC,
but Dual Channel usually requires that the memory sticks are
"matched pairs".

JS
http://www.pagestart.com
 
Barnaby said:
I got a great deal on a CPU/MOBO combo and the only thing I noticed was
single channel instead of dual channel. They have a board for twenty bucks
at
Frys which is essentially the same as mine ,except it has dual channels
for
the DDR2. Is it worth my while performance wise to swap in a dual channel
board all else being equal ? My system runs great as it is.
XP Home on a CD2 E7200/ECS board combo I got for $109. Also the newer
board
has no IDE for my optical drive and I would have to get a SATA CD/DVD
burner
to install the new board. Is a SATA CD/DVD drive any faster as far as
transfer speed ?
Click to expand...

When I upgraded the dual channel DDR2 RAM on my laptop, I used
the opportunity to do some benchmark testing. The difference between
dual and single channel on the benchmark was only about 10%, so it
will probably be less in normal use, hardly noticeable. Unless you're
doing benchmarks that is.
 
Barnaby said:
I got a great deal on a CPU/MOBO combo and the only thing I noticed was
single channel instead of dual channel. They have a board for twenty bucks at
Frys which is essentially the same as mine ,except it has dual channels for
the DDR2. Is it worth my while performance wise to swap in a dual channel
board all else being equal ? My system runs great as it is.
XP Home on a CD2 E7200/ECS board combo I got for $109. Also the newer board
has no IDE for my optical drive and I would have to get a SATA CD/DVD burner
to install the new board. Is a SATA CD/DVD drive any faster as far as
transfer speed ?
Click to expand...

Here are my benchmark results. All memory runs are
at DDR2-533 3-3-3-12 1T. Single or dual channel is controlled
by a BIOS setting, so memory is a constant amount at 2GB total.

Memtest 1.65 could not be run at 266 x 10, because my BIOS doesn't
allow the multiplier to be set. The multiplier had to be changed in
Windows, to get the center pair of result.
SuperPI Memtest 1.65
1M (sec) Bandwidth
lower is (MB/sec)
better

200 x 13 = 2.60GHz, FSB800, DDR2-533, Single channel 24.05 2203
Dual channel 22.87 2668

266 x 10 = 2.66GHz, FSB1066, DDR2-533, Single channel 23.47 ----
Dual channel 22.52 ----

266 x 13 = 3.46GHz, FSB1066, DDR2-533, Single channel 19.37 2419
Dual channel 18.42 3305

Both of the switches from single to dual channel, yield 5% more performance
in SuperPI. It is a bit strange, that the memory bandwidth increase was
a bit more for the last pair of test cases, and yet the impact on
SuperPI was about the same.

The purpose of running all three sets, is to show that changing the
CPU core speed, is more important than memory related stuff.

My board is anomalous, and has a VIA chipset, and shouldn't be used
to guess at what an Intel chipset board would give you. I ran the
benchmarks anyway, so you'd have some numbers to look at. Intel
boards would have higher bandwidth numbers, so the processor
wouldn't be as starved as it is on my board.

[ E4700 dual core on Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 PT880 Ultra with 2x1GB memory. ]

Paul
 
Thanks...that was the most complete answer by far. I`ll wait for Nehalem to
come down in price next year (as it will require a newer MOBO design) and do
the Win 7 thing at the same time.
--
Barnaby


Paul said:
Barnaby said:
I got a great deal on a CPU/MOBO combo and the only thing I noticed was
single channel instead of dual channel. They have a board for twenty bucks at
Frys which is essentially the same as mine ,except it has dual channels for
the DDR2. Is it worth my while performance wise to swap in a dual channel
board all else being equal ? My system runs great as it is.
XP Home on a CD2 E7200/ECS board combo I got for $109. Also the newer board
has no IDE for my optical drive and I would have to get a SATA CD/DVD burner
to install the new board. Is a SATA CD/DVD drive any faster as far as
transfer speed ?
Click to expand...

Here are my benchmark results. All memory runs are
at DDR2-533 3-3-3-12 1T. Single or dual channel is controlled
by a BIOS setting, so memory is a constant amount at 2GB total.

Memtest 1.65 could not be run at 266 x 10, because my BIOS doesn't
allow the multiplier to be set. The multiplier had to be changed in
Windows, to get the center pair of result.
SuperPI Memtest 1.65
1M (sec) Bandwidth
lower is (MB/sec)
better

200 x 13 = 2.60GHz, FSB800, DDR2-533, Single channel 24.05 2203
Dual channel 22.87 2668

266 x 10 = 2.66GHz, FSB1066, DDR2-533, Single channel 23.47 ----
Dual channel 22.52 ----

266 x 13 = 3.46GHz, FSB1066, DDR2-533, Single channel 19.37 2419
Dual channel 18.42 3305

Both of the switches from single to dual channel, yield 5% more performance
in SuperPI. It is a bit strange, that the memory bandwidth increase was
a bit more for the last pair of test cases, and yet the impact on
SuperPI was about the same.

The purpose of running all three sets, is to show that changing the
CPU core speed, is more important than memory related stuff.

My board is anomalous, and has a VIA chipset, and shouldn't be used
to guess at what an Intel chipset board would give you. I ran the
benchmarks anyway, so you'd have some numbers to look at. Intel
boards would have higher bandwidth numbers, so the processor
wouldn't be as starved as it is on my board.

[ E4700 dual core on Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 PT880 Ultra with 2x1GB memory. ]

Paul
Click to expand...
 
IceMan said:
Do whatever you want. The problem here is not related to the OS and
as such does not belong here.

Ask elsewhere
Click to expand...

Alternatively you could ignore our resident ****wit and ask in a hardware
newsgroup.

Note to the ****wit: This *is* a hardware newsgroup.
 
IceMan said:
Note ot the dipshit: Yes, when the hardware problem relates to the
OS. This problem does not meet that criteria. Buh-bye.
Click to expand...

You are confused. You are confusing the rest of us with people who give a
shit.
 
IceMan said:
No, I confused you with somebody with an IQ higher than that of a
beetroot. Obviously I was wrong, it is much lower than I even
thought.

Anyway, I'm tired of being bored by your predictable replies. Buh
Bye.
Click to expand...

Not as bored as the rest of us are with your contuinued spam postings about
people posting perfectly acceptable questions that you (and you alone) deem
shouldn't be posted here. That you are mentally retarded is not in doubt as
your continued obsession clearly demonstrates - and others have also
observed.
 
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