How is this RAM set-up for MacPro?

[peterm10]

I am about to buy a MacPro 2.66 with the default 1GB of RAM from Apple, and would like to upgrade it to at least 4GB or more with RAM from macsales.com. I was thinking of buying 4 sticks of 1GB RAM and 2 sticks of 512MB RAM for about $470. Then I will have all eight slots loaded (I read that having 4 of the 512MB sticks is much better than having just 2, and that it is better to have 4 or 8 modules loaded, not 2 or 6 - see http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/free/MacPro/memory.html). 6GB of RAM will be more than enough for me for a long time (I am not a gamer or video editor - I mainly will use it for Photoshop and Lightroom editing).

I then noticed that I can get 6GB of RAM (6 sitcks of 1GB each) instead from macsales for only $30 more ($499). I would then have a total of 7GB of RAM, but at the same time I would only have 2 of the 512mb "single rank" sticks installed. For all I know this could make the system SLOWER than a 6GB system with 4 of the 512MB sticks installed.


Can anyone advise?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[ZachPruckowski]

For all I know this could make the system SLOWER than a 6GB system with 4 of the 512MB sticks installed.

The 7 GB set up will not be slower than the 6 GB set-up.

If you have four of the 1 GB sticks in the first slots on each riser (2 in each riser), then you'll have quad-channel memory. Adding the extra GB of RAM to one riser will change nothing.