RAM Upgrade options

I'm thinking about buying some RAM for my bro's laptop (he'll need to get his own HDD). He is currently running an older ThinkPad system running on a P-M, and 512MB.

I'm trying to decide between the options. for example;

Should I get 1 X 2 GB or 2 X 1GB?

It seems to me sometimes that 2 sticks of 1 GB cost more than 1 stick of 2GB. Would the old P-M systems even be able to run Dual-channel, and would it even make a difference? Or should I just get one stick in hopes that it minimizes pagefile usage? I have a feeling I just might go for 1 stick of 2GB since everybody is saying that dual-channel doesn't really increase speed that much.

 

Go with whatever setup is cheapest. It won't matter much if you go with a single channel vs dual channel setup. Definitely not something any human on earth would notice.

 

2 x 1 GB will usually be cheaper than 1 x 2GB. And yes, you will get the (unnoticeable) benefits of dual channel.

 

yea sounds good.
i had a feeling about the single stick of 2GB ram. now i just gotta find a place in canada for cheap.
thnx for the advice.

oh and adinu, GXPs are sick! i loved getting Grand Am rental cars. nice and quick, and can keep up w/ rice boys nice and good.

 

Now that I am here you can get correct info as there is some misinformation in this thread.

Depending on the chipset the laptop may not even be capable of dual channel.

The pentium M is either going to use the 855 series of chipset which does NOT support dual channel. If the laptop is based on this chipset then it will not matter if you get 1x 2gb or 2x1gb.

If the laptop is based off the 9xx series chipset then YES it would be MUCH better to get 2x 1gb sticks as dual channel is greatly helpful under multitasking especially if the laptop has integrated graphics.

Now that I provided the CORRECT information you need I will be going....