(1) 1GB stick on AM2?

[Uscooper]

I'm building a system for my mom based on a Gigabyte am2 board and the 3800+ x2. She will mainly just be surfing the internet and viewing photos, etc. The board has an integrated 6100 Nvidia. I just bought one, one gig stick of Mushkin ddr2 667 Ram. I'm just going to put xp on the machine for now and i know that dual channel will be better performance- but is it really that big of a difference? I figured in the long run for upgrading, (1) 1 gig stick would allow me to just drop another in there other than having 2x512 and when i want to upgrade to 2GB that would fill all of my dimms and result in 2T timings on the AMD system.

I already have a Flat panel that I'm giving her. The system is as follows:
AMD X2 3800+ AM2, 1gb Mushkin ddr2 667 Ram 1 dimm, samsung 18x dvd burner, WD 160GB Sata 300 HDD, Gigabyte GA-M61P-S3 mobo, 16 in 1 camera card reader, antec NSK4400 case, PCI wifi card, usb optical mouse, usb keyboard, speakers- like 415 bucks including tax and shipping and all

 

[jeff_2087]

For sure 2 sticks would give you better performance, but for what she's doing I doubt it'd be noticeable. Gaming and such you'd definitely want dual channel but for other everyday use the difference would hardly matter.

 

[Mondoman]

I'd worry more about the PCI WiFi card. I've had experience with flaky drivers on those -- you might consider a USB WiFi adapter instead.

 

[Uscooper]

yeah i did pci because that makes it easier for her to move around and not break anything or not know where to put it. Shes one of these people who works on a computer at work and can type well and all but she doesnt know crap about computers. If the card doesnt work i'll pick up a usb one for her which is no biggie i mean i work at best buy.