Member Avatar for kingkee101

gday.i have an asus an8 (gto i thinks) MB, it has 4 slots for ram and can run dual channel. dual channel activates in slots 1/2 and 3/4.i have 4 x 512mb matched ram in atm.
i have a spare 1GB stick, so would there be any advantage by replacing one of the 512 sticks with the 1gb forfeiting the 2nd dual channel offered?

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Quick summary for : the real trade-off is capacity versus memory bandwidth. Music production with big sample libraries and some modern games benefit more from extra RAM if the system is paging; if you never approach the limit of your current 2GB, keeping matched sticks and full dual‑channel gives a small but measurable bandwidth advantage.

How to decide in practice:

  • Recreate a typical music project or gaming session and watch memory use. On Windows, open Task Manager (Performance tab) and note Commit/Physical memory and any big spikes in “Hard Faults” or PF. If the system starts reading/writing the pagefile during real use, extra RAM will help more than the extra channel.
  • If possible run a big contact/sample bank or your usual multitrack template; that’s where you’ll see the difference. If you see consistent pagefile activity or audio dropouts tied to memory pressure, capacity wins.

Practical upgrade guidance:

  • If memory is the bottleneck, increase capacity but use matched modules when possible so you don’t permanently lose dual‑channel. The cleanest long‑term move is a matched kit (two 1GB modules or four matching sticks) so you keep bandwidth and raise capacity.
  • If budget is tight, a temporary mixed-size test is fine, but check stability with a memory tester (memtest86+). Mixing sticks can force looser timings/voltages in BIOS and occasionally cause instability.

Notes: for low‑latency recording, CPU and disk throughput matter a lot too — more RAM prevents paging but won’t fix slow disks or overloaded CPUs.

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Member Avatar for Passmark

I would sell 2 of the the 512MB sticks on Ebay and with the proceeds buy an additional 1GB stick to match your spare 1GB stick. The cost difference would be small (maybe $30?) and you get 3GB in dual channel.

Member Avatar for kingkee101

thanks mate.that is a probable solution, better than either outcome in my case, just still curious as to which option is the best.

Member Avatar for Passmark

It depends on what software you are using, and what you do with your PC.

If you are using apps that use a lot of RAM (e.g. Photoshop with multiple large images) then you need as much RAM as you can get, regardless of if it is marginally slower. Because any RAM will be 10x faster that swapping to disk when you run out of RAM.

If you aren't fully using the 2GB you have today. Then the extra speed is better. And you shouldn't give up the dual channels.

Member Avatar for kingkee101

ok, well i mainly use it for gaming and music recording/editing software

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