Dual vs. Single Channel Setup question

[joeisabigdork]

Newbie question. Hey everyone, I just opened up my brother's computer so I can test one of his pc 3200 ram on my computer, when I noticed that his computer is running on a dual channel memory setup. Now the problem is, that his computer is set up as 2 x 512 mb sticks in 166 MHZ dual channel mode, instead of 200 MHZ. This baffled me. I messed around a bit and for some ODD REASON it wouldn't work at 200 MHZ dual channel mode.

Now heres the question: would it be faster if I 'fixed his computer' to set it as 200 MHZ Single channel mode as opposed to 166 mhz dual channel mode.

 

[mechBgon]

More info on the system's spec would help. If it's (wild guess) an nForce2 motherboard, the best performance is when the memory is running dual-channel at the same speed as the processor's frontside bus speed. So if it were a stock-clocked AthlonXP 2500+ with a 166MHz FSB, you would set the memory to run at 166MHz too. Raising the memory to 200MHz would cost you 15-20% of your UT2003 Demo framerates. Yeeowch! :Q

Sync = good, as a general rule

 

[joeisabigdork]

Thanks a lot. Funny you gave an example of a AthlonXP 2500+ cause thats what my brother has. =D He does has some Asus Motherboard.