memory/gaming pc

[mikeyg]

i have two two questions for all you gamers out there and non gamers alike. fiirst off memory. i am going ddr, now how big a difference is there in dual channel ddr and "normal" ddr? along with that, does the motherboard need to be dual channel compatible? and then my second question is more an asking for input. i am a counter strike player (i am chupacabra is the name if your wondering) but thats neither here nor there. currently i have a alienware area 51 with a pentium4 3.0ghz, 1gb ram, ati radeon x1600 pro. i am interested in building my own pc with an amd 64x2 or fx and 2gb of memory. i have been reading about the geforce 8800 as far as video cards go. but i am looking for opinions, those specs are more just to give a price range im looking at. so please if you have a minute, let me know your thoughts, it would be greatly appreciateted.


"in the wild, there is no such thing as health care. in the wild, health care is owe, i hurt my leg, im a lion eats me, and im dead. well, im not dead. im the lion.
youre dead!
~dwight schrute, the office

 

[Mondoman]

...i am going ddr, now how big a difference is there in dual channel ddr and "normal" ddr? along with that, does the motherboard need to be dual channel compatible? ...

No difference -- dual channel is a property of the motherboard; it means there are two memory controllers that can both work at the same time, thus doubling the memory throughput.

 

[El-Dude]

I would have to say there is a pretty big difference between DDR and dual channel DDR. When you use dual memory you double the data throughput from the RAM to the memory controllers. So its theroretically twice as fast as normal DDR. As for the video card I say if you have the money and love smooth and great looking graphics you should deffinently opt for the 8800. Its the newest and greatest nVidia has to offer. I also think its great your building your own PC. IF I only had the money I would build a new gaming rig...but thats a different story.

 

[Mondoman]

I would have to say there is a pretty big difference between DDR and dual channel DDR.

There is no difference because there is no such thing as "dual channel DDR" memory (see my post above).

... When you use dual memory you double the data throughput from the RAM to the memory controllers.

Not really, you double the number of memory controllers in use to 2. The data throughput from RAM to each memory controller is still the same, but since you are using 2 memory controllers at the same time, you double the total data output from the memory controllers.

See my posts in this thread: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1464567#1464567

 

[El-Dude]

There is no difference because there is no such thing as "dual channel DDR" memory.

I disagree with you. Instead of trying to urgue with you this article pretty much says it all. On DDR Dual Channel configuration, memory is acessed 128 bits at a time, instead of 64 bits, which is the normal rate. Therefore, the transfer rate is doubled. In order to use this configuration on your PC, you need to have a motherboard with this feature and two identical memory modules correctly installed. The entire article can be found here http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/133/5

 

[PCAnalyst]

i have two two questions for all you gamers out there and non gamers alike. fiirst off memory. i am going ddr, now how big a difference is there in dual channel ddr and "normal" ddr? along with that, does the motherboard need to be dual channel compatible? and then my second question is more an asking for input. i am a counter strike player (i am chupacabra is the name if your wondering) but thats neither here nor there. currently i have a alienware area 51 with a pentium4 3.0ghz, 1gb ram, ati radeon x1600 pro. i am interested in building my own pc with an amd 64x2 or fx and 2gb of memory. i have been reading about the geforce 8800 as far as video cards go. but i am looking for opinions, those specs are more just to give a price range im looking at. so please if you have a minute, let me know your thoughts, it would be greatly appreciateted.


"in the wild, there is no such thing as health care. in the wild, health care is owe, i hurt my leg, im a lion eats me, and im dead. well, im not dead. im the lion.
youre dead!
~dwight schrute, the office

Since your memory question has been answered I thought I might refer to the rest of your post.

Just out of curiosity I want to ask if you are Loyal to AMD... its ok if you are... I was for years, but if you are truely wanting Stellar performance... you will want to use an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU.

This week the 8800GTX holds the title... so not much better performance can be achieved out of any other card. Buy it if you can afford it... or wait until april for ATI/AMD's offering - R600.

But of course if you do decide you want the Core 2 system (currently the best) you have some things to consider.

I would suggest going through the forumz a bit and read hardware posts on all the components... ie.. motherboards, GPUs , CPUs, RAM, Harddrives, cases, cooling, Power supplies, Zen Logic

That way you can make a more informed decision and share your final search for any tweaking of the system... it will allow for a better end result I think... narrowing down components will keep the barrage of opinions to a minimum (maybe) 8)

 

[Mondoman]

There is no difference because there is no such thing as "dual channel DDR" memory.

I disagree with you. Instead of trying to urgue with you this article pretty much says it all.
Actually, it supports what I said and says nothing about any special type of memory required for dual-channel mode.

On DDR Dual Channel configuration, memory is acessed 128 bits at a time, instead of 64 bits, which is the normal rate.

Yes, two controllers each access 64 bits at a time (from different DIMMs), for a total of 128 bits. The throughput from each DIMM remains the same, but the total system throughput is doubled by having both controllers working at the same time. The memory modules themselves are just "standard" DDR or DDR2 memory modules.

In order to use this configuration on your PC, you need to have a motherboard with this feature and two identical memory modules correctly installed.

Again, this says nothing about a special type of memory module needed for dual-channel mode. As the article makes clear, dual-channel mode requires dual memory controllers in the chipset or CPU. The article says nothing about a special type of memory module needed for dual-channel mode.
In fact, the article is now somewhat dated, as with the latest Intel chipsets, you no longer need to have memory modules of even the same size in the two channels -- 2x512MB in one channel and 1x1GB in the other channel will work fine in dual-channel mode.