Okay, i have a question. I know how the ddr dual channel rams works, but is it worth it? does anyone have it? or have experienced it? i'm leaning towards and ABIT board for my next PC, its the AN7. specs:

Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket A for AMD Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron Processor
Chipset: nVIDIA nFORCE 2 Ultra 400 + MCP-T
FSB: 400/333/266MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM for DDR333/266 Max 3GB, 2x DIMM for DDR400 Max 2GB
IDE: 2x ATA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS/2,1xLPT,1xCOM,8xUSB2.0(Rear 4),1xLAN,2xIEEE1394(Rear 1),SPDIF In/Out,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: 6-Channel AC97 CODEC
Onboard LAN: Realtek 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x Serial ATA 150, RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: 3 Ports
Form Factor: ATX


Its either this or this asus board. A7N8X-E Deluxe

Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP-T
FSB: 400/333/266/200MHz
RAM: 3x DIMM support Dual-Channel DDR400/333(Non-ECC) Max 3GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 133 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP Pro/8X, 5x PCI
Ports: 2xPS2,1xLPT,1xCOM,2xLAN,6xUSB2.0(Rear 4),SPDIF Out,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC650 6-Channel Codec
Onboard LAN: Realtek 8201BL 10/100Mbps + Marvell 88E8001 GbE
Onboard SATA/RAID: Silicon Image Sil3112A RAID Controller 2x Serial ATA, RAID 0/1
Form Factor: ATX

The Abit doesnt look like it has the dual channel feature, or does the ddr mean that? i'm a lil lost with that.

 

Dual Channel, at the basic level, is having a separate memory controller for each DIMM which allows the memory controllers to work in tandem, and thus increase the memory throughput from 3.2 GB per second to 6.4 GB per second. In other words, it enhances your system by allowing double the amount of data to pass between the memory and CPU, and thus benefits programs that are very data intensive, such as... games...

.. that probably confused you a little more.. i'm tired as **** sitting here at work like a zombie.

 

cool, yea i understand how it works, but is it really noticable is what i'm asking? as in, lets say i have 2 different sticks of 512 (total of 1 gig) the dual channel will not work becasue i need same exact memory, so i get 2 sticks of same stick makin the dual channel work, will i notice a difference between the two setups? the dual channel working and without it?

 

Most likely. I'm running 1 Gig of DDR400 on an Asus P4P800? i think that's the right model, Don't really remember. But yeah, I was last running a machine with pretty much the same specifications (same FSB, Processor), but wasn't doing DDR ram nor the Serial ATA hard drives that I have now. Big improvement. My 3DMarks score definitely shot up by about 150. I'd be interested in seeing how much it improves your score. (search for futuremark 3dmark on google)

 

I use the Asus A7N8X-Deluxe board. Not sure what the -E means... but meh.

Anyway, I bought another 256 chip identical to the one I have already once. My speed in CS and Battlefield definitely increased by a lot. I ended up returning the stick I bought because I liked Dual Channel so much that I wanted to do it with two 512 sticks instead of two 256 sticks. More = better

 

I'd probably choose DDR over RD these days. It's cheap and gets the job done as well

 

Dual channel only really helps Intel chips sincee they are so bandwidth hungry. AMD chips don't gain much from dual channel setups. You probably won't notice a difference, but a benchmark would show somewhat of an increase.

 

anyone have imput on these 2 mobo's?

 

Personally I'd go for the Abit board. I've heard of a number of people running into trouble with that Asus board, but both Abit and Asus make solid boards.

 

It depends a little on what you're doing but, yes, it is often noticeable.

The guys at the Dell server boards swear by it.