I doubt you would get a performance change -- or noticeable performance gain. You are not able to reach the desktop with four DIMMs plugged in.



What happens when you alternate. Color wise.

Can't help but ask the obvious...What OS are you on?

you wont face any performance boost, except maybe the minor power savings from shifting to fewer sticks.

But what is the explanation for his sticks to fail the mem test?

Originally Posted by baccilus

But what is the explanation for his sticks to fail the mem test?

Something wrong with the board itself? I think he already mentioned that.

Because some googling revealed that IP35e motherboard has some issues when all 4 slots are full. As when the memtest runs at the boot up , it almost always fails when all the 4 slots are full but passes when i test the sticks individually or even 3 at a time.

Originally Posted by baccilus

But what is the explanation for his sticks to fail the mem test?

Either board or DIMMs. During the LGA775 days -- some boards had issues with all slots populated. Same reason I never went for 4 sticks, was thinking once to put in 8 GB.

Give 2 of them to me Get a 2 gig stick. Profit

^^ Hehe.



I am on Windows 7 32 BIT ( dont want to go in for 64 bit for compatibility issues ). I have no problems in booting to desktop even with all sticks plugged in; it's just the fact that the memtest fails in this situation ( although all slots individually work fine ) that worries me if there is some problem in the bridge between the slots when all are populated. . so was asking our advice.



@Ultima : Would there be people willing to trade it ? I dont want to get into the mode of selling and rebuying. . too much of a hassle for me rite now

^^

Why you memtesting it, if the system is stable..? Also is there some specific software which restrains you to migrate to 64BIT..?

my advice...if it ain't broke don't fix it.

You're not facing any issues except in memtest.

You're using a 32 bit OS which can't use 4 GB of RAM.



DDR2 RAM is outdated and relatively expensive. Investing in a new pair of sticks just so you can run memtest without errors seems pointless, unless you really love running memtest.

Use 64Bit OS or use Linux Kernel with PAE Extension.

Originally Posted by asingh

^^

Why you memtesting it, if the system is stable..? Also is there some specific software which restrains you to migrate to 64BIT..?

Nothing in particular. . but it is my general inhibition against it. . I fear I may face some issues with it and then curse my self. .



As one of the members said. . if it aint broke. .dont fix it ?



Majority of you seem to believe that it wont bring any major changes. . so I'll drop the idea for now. Until i screw something up real bad and have to go in for a DDR 3 setup anyways

1. With 4 sticks it may be much more difficult to OC.



2. Some boards might not support dual channel with 4 sticks, though I am not 100% certain on this.



3. AFAIK some boards might face trouble with running the RAM at their max speed with four sticks.



4. Some boards may have compatibility issues as well, eg: Asus A8N E or Asus P5N E etc.



I always prefer 2 sticks rather than 4 for this reason.

Are you on the latest bios, because the abit boards had lots of bios issues mainly bugs.

Try updating to the latest one.



And yes if you get 2x2gb instead of 4x1gb, the performance gain might be 2-3% or less, though you will save some power.