My motherboard supports dual channel DDR2 memory with four DIMM slots. How do I best achive 4GB of memory?

Question

Should I get four 1GB memory modules or two 2GB memory modules? Is there any difference? Why does it say that I only have 3.25GB of RAM when in fact I have 4GB? By the way I'm running Windows XP Professional 32-bit edition.

Answer 1

I recommend using two 2GB memory sticks. 32-bit operating systems only allow up to 3GBs in memory. You need to upgrade your OS if you have a 64 bit motherboard.

Answer 2

I would go with to four 1GB memory you get faster response time that way. Unfortunately my mother board only has 2 memory slots so I am thinking about going with 2 one GB sticks.

Answer 3

use 2GB in both 2GB slots, if u want to increase memory even more down the road  

Answer 4

only diff is price (only 1 you will actually notice anyway) so find the fastest speed ram u can afford and get it either as 4 1g sticks or 2 2g sticks whichever is cheaper

i promise no matter what is said here u will not be able to see a difference at all

btw it says u have only 3.25 most likely cuz u have onbaord video and it uses some of your ram as its memory so it doesnt show up as system memory

Answer 5

You have to know 2 things.First if your computer supports 4GB of memory and second how many GB can one slot see.Got to crucial.com and use the system scanner to find out. You can't see more than 3.25 GB of memory because 32 bit operating systems can't address more than that.

Either configuration will be dual channel as long the sticks are identical