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    Currently I have 512 MB of RAM installed (2x256 MB DDR 266 PC 2100) which fills up all 2 slots on the motherboard.  I bought a 1GB DDR 266 PC 2100 stick from a friend.  I know you should always try to have the same size memory sticks installed side by side with DDR, so my question is: Should I remove both sticks of 256 MB RAM and just install the 1GB module or should I leave one stick in so I have a 1 GB and a 256 MB stick installed?  Will I take a performance hit at all because they aren't the same size and possibly be slower than the 1 GB by itself?  Or is that only a bigger deal if the speeds don't match?
    Wednesday, November 7, 2007 4:15 AM

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    First question - does your motherboard support different size modules together - I would guess the answer would be yes, hopefully the days of matched memory are long gone :-)

     

    Is this machine going to be your WHS box? If so, you can probably just get away with the 1 GB, otherwise I would try with both sticks in, if you think there is a performance hit, or you are starting to get freezes or crashes you didnt experience before, just pull out the 256 MB one.


    Andrew

     

    Wednesday, November 7, 2007 7:10 AM
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    Well - few questions first...are you certain your board supports 1GB DIMM's?  If so, I'd say just stuff as much memory in the board as possible.  Yes, you will lose dual-channel bandwidth IF your board supported dual-channel in the first place (AMD Socket 754-based boards didn't support dual-channel DDR, for instance due to AMD's integrated memory controllers on their CPU's) but I don't think the hit would be all that noticable.  As well, you shouldn't lose too much speed in terms of memory although larger DIMM's generally have higher latencies but see below...

    Ultimately I would assume your WHS is going to be performing a lot of network/hard drive activity versus hardcore computational I/O in which super-fast memory isn't really crucial here - hence people building WHS boxes with ~1GHz CPU's and having no troubles keeping up with the tasks appointed them.  I'd say get as much memory in there as you can.
    Sunday, November 11, 2007 5:12 AM