I was going to build a new comp but I'm stuck in my decision on whether to go with a 2 stick 2gb setup or a 4x512 setup. Will using 4 sticks of 512, to equal the 2gb setup, increase my chances of an error. I know a two stick is better casue it allows room for more ram but I don't have much moiney right now and could only buy 512..... if i do this than I would either have to sell the 512 back to get a 2 stick setup or loose money. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hiya rippaman77, welcome to the forum :wave:

Everyone on here knows that hardware isn't my strongest point but i would recommend buying a motherboard that supports dual channel RAM. I would then go with 2x 512mb RAM sticks until you can afford the jump to 2GB.

Just my two penneth

I've used the newbie term pretty lightly... I know a descent amount of info about setting up comp including u need dual channel compatibility in order to run two sticks of ram. The prob is I'm looking to have 2 gbs of ram eventually. By getting 2 sticks of 512 for now in the future I would need 2 more sticks of 512 to eual the 2gb output. I want to know is this the 4x512 setup in disadvantage to a 2x1gb setup. Thanks for the help....

Hmmm..... By using 4x 512mb RAM i think you would be cancelling out the dual channel advantages (as far as i know).
I would really recommend saving for a while longer and going for the 2x 1024mb RAM

Hi,

If two gigs is your goal, it would be be best to spill for a 2 gig "kit" of matched ram rather than 2 matched ram now, and then chancing that you can buy 2 matched ram later that will exactly match the two you already have.

The best advice is to always buy only matched sets for a rig. Also, there is some loss of total utility for a dual channel when all four slots are populated.

My recommendation, save and go for the 2 one gig sticks that are exactly matched in a kit for your two gigs of ram.