Dual Channel Or Standard?

[RVE]

I know that taking advantage of a Dual Channel mobo has performance advantages, I'm just wondering how much of a boost is it? If you take 2 of the exact same systems and take the same 2 sticks of ram, just say 512mb of Geil and benchmark them both, how much a performance increase will the Dual Channel provide?

 

Now what I plan mostly on doing is gaming and some video editing, perhaps other designing stuff. So of course I'm trying to find my best configuration. Also on average how much does a Dual Channel mobo cost compared to a comparable mobo that doesn't support Dual Channel? Do you have to pay a little more for Dual Channel support? Is the extra cost worth it?

 

I plan on getting a P4 3.06Ghz with H/T, so I'm looking around for a mobo for that. Also leaning toward either 512MB or 1GB of Geil Ram. I don't plan on fully building my system until later this year so I'm trying to get as much research in as I can.

 

Any suggestions on a good mobo would be appreciated. I know there's a lot of AMD fans here but I'd really love to get the H/T CPU. Thanks in advanced for your help.

 

I wasn't sure if this should go in Mobo or Memory Forum so I apologize if it's in the wrong place...

[andrusk]

i dug up an article at tomshardware.com about dual ddr in on some of the pentium mobos and chipsets, seeing as how i am an amd enthusiast i cannot articulate on the in and outs of a pentium chipset, however, i can tell you that there is a performance boost when it comes to using dual ddr as opposed to ddr. as far as % increase from my calculations of the benches on this webpage, you can see about an average of 14% increase if using the same ram on dual ddr, instead of single ddr.

 

Also if you will be gaming and doing video editing, you will notice a difference in performance in these applications. I cannot say about how much a mobo would cost that supports the p4 HT, but my guess is that if it is a recent board that you will be buying they could be rather pricey. And also if you do buy a recent board it is more than likely that it will support dual ddr at a very minimal if any at all increase in cost. And also it really depends on wether you think the performance increase is worth your extra money, but i would definetly say to go for it.

 

Sorry i couldnt help more , seeing as how i can answer pretty much any amd question i have very little knowledge about the newer pentium systems. I hope some of this information helps you out a little bit. im sure there's someone else here who can elaberate a little more on the subject, but i do what i can

[RVE]

You've helped a lot and I appreciate it. I just read through the link you gave for Tom's Hardware and it's quite informative. Reading though that pretty much made my decision for me to go ahead with Dual Channel support. Leaning towards a GB of Geil, maybe if I have extra cash by the time I build my comp I might get Corsair. My biggest decision is a mobo. Since I'm not buying right now I guess I have the luxury to wait and see what comes out in the coming months. Leaning towards Asus or Gigbyte mobo's, maybe Albatron, I love that blue PCB they use.

 

I don't remember where but I did read a review somewhere that someone was able to OC Geil ram just as high as the Corsairs they tested earlier. They both performed about the same, so maybe Geil is the way to go or he just happened to get a good pair of Ram from Geil. Who knows...

 

You made perfect sense in saying that since I was getting a mobo that supports H/T it'll probably support Dual DDR as well. I didn't even think about it. So the extra cost won't actually be bugging me anyway since I'll be getting exactly what I want.

[andrusk]

cool, glad i could help, good luck with your desicion

[Inu_Yasha]

I'm going with a dual ddr setup soon, I'm getting the AOpen AX45-4D-Max for versitility. Just look at some of the SiS 655 boards, most of them support H/T if you get the b0 stepping. I know the AOpen has it so....