Single or Dual Channel Memory on Mobile

sechs

sechs

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I'm spec'ing out a laptop for a customer. It's being expensed, and he has a nice budget; but it'll only be used for about three years, and there's little chance of an upgrade during that time period. So, whatever he gets now, he's stuck with for the duration.

After spending time trying to decipher Intel's processor naming scheme and determining that it's only meant to confuse, we now need to pick memory. User currently has a Core 2 Duo laptop which I upgraded to 2GB some years back; memory does not seem to currently be a major limitation. So, I don't see moving to 8GB vs. 4GB to be worthwhile. That, and going with the SSD puts the additional memory out of the budget.

My question is: ignoring any possible price difference, is there any advantage to going with a single faster DIMM over two slower ones, presumably in dual channel mode?

And, for the record, the options are:
4 GB PC3-8500 (2 DIMM)
4 GB PC3-10600 (1 DIMM)
 
If there isn't going to be any upgrading I don't see why you wouldn't go with the dual. Heck I'm not sure why you would need more than 4gb in a laptop.
 
I also doubt that makes any difference. Does the laptop support the higher speeds?

Photoshop would be one reason to have 8GB, but then the user should be looking at Macs, too.
 
Supposedly, when in dual mode the sticks can be written to in parallel. [both at the same time] Standard memory fills one stick then moves to the next stick.
I'd go with the dual sticks.
 
LunarMist said:
I also doubt that makes any difference. Does the laptop support the higher speeds?
Click to expand...
The Intel chips do, so I presume that the laptop does, as well.

Then again, going with one stick of the slower memory seems to cost the same as one stick of the faster. We're just paying for the higher density.
 
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