What is better, 2 sticks of RAM or 4 sticks?

so the 2 sticks would be duel channel correcT?

You'll get different answers from people for different reason on this one.

If your motherboard operates dual-channel with the matched pair in the right slots, then you definitely want to go with matched pairs.

Two sticks is a good idea if you might upgrade your memory sometime in the future.

Four sticks can be a teeny bit faster than two sticks of comparable specifications and twice the capacity (in other words, four 1GB sticks of 3-3-3 might be a tad faster than two sticks of 2GB 3-3-3) because of otherwise unseen management functions.

The downside-- upgrading your memory requires replacing at least a pair of sticks which will not be used in the machine.

2 sticks for DDR2 or 3 sticks for DDR3 are the norm
Anything else usually means memory address problems in the mobos memory controller, depending on what OS your running!!

3 sticks for triple-channel DDR3 is the norm*

I have dual-channel DDR3, so I have 4 sticks (2 pairs)

It wil be in dual channel if you have pairs of memmory of the same size. so 2 x 256 and 2 x 512 will run in dual channel. Also if you don't have the configuration necessary to run in dual channel, it will configure it to run in single channel automatically.

I would also like to point ou that I personally have that uholy 1.5 gig in my desktop, and it runs in dual channel.




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For dual channel you need two sticks of RAM EXACTLY the same. Same model, size speed etc. Dual channel doesn't work if the RAM performance is different, hence why you buy 2 sticks the same model number and how I get lots of performance on the Q6600 system

Not entirely true.

2 sticks for DDR3 dual channel is still quite popular. Only high end intel boards run DDR3 in triple channel.

With AMD Setups 2 sticks is a much better option than 4. AMD chips have their memory controller on the actual chip, and can't handle as high of memory speeds with 4 as it can with 2. In fact a lot of older boards, used to downclock for sticks of memory. For example my nforce 4 based setups, could run two sticks at over 500mhz fine, with 4 I was lucky to get 350mhz.

Intel's aren't as bad, but running a full bank can put more of a load on your chipset as well, it also gives you no room to upgrade.

Price is really the thing to consider. If you need 4gb of ram, put up the $60 to get a 2x2gb kit. If you need 8gb, and you think it's going to last you awhile, it's going to be a much better option to get 4x2gb sticks, vs 2x4gb sticks due to cost. But if you are going to have to move to 16gb in the near future, then the 4gb sticks are better options.

I hope that made sense, I'm still waking up. (which also is why I didn't pay attention to the date and replied to a month old post)