Many thanks Terry! Dual channel is a no brainer, in that case....
especially considering that a 2 or 3 year old computer is considered
brand new in my household. We keep them 5-7 years, until they die or
the OS is a complete dinosaur - whatever comes first.

Now I have to find out if I will be able to use the remote access part
of XP pro to access my work computer from home. If I can, it's worth
the $$$. If I can't, I'll stick with the XP Home version.... unless
there's another compelling reason to go with Pro.

``````````````````````````
TF wrote:
Simple answer: because it doubles your memory speed.

Explanation: memory chips are pretty much limited to running at
200MHz. By
some clever architecture changes made my the RAM manufacturers, it is

possible to both write and read in the same clock cycle, so the
memory
modules effectively run at 400MHz. This is still half the speed of
the
processor bus (800MHz) and is a bottleneck to processor performance.
So by
changing the method of addressing the memory, it is possible to run
two
memory modules on a single 800MHz bus, alternately addresses each
module per
clock cycle - Dual Channel!

What's it worth in raw performance: 12% for very little additional
investment (if you want dual channel 512MB memory, you have to have 2
x
256MB modules which are just a little more expensive that a single
512MB
module). The processor also costs a little more but also get
hyperthreading
enabled on the processor which is worth up to 8% depending on what
you are
running.

You may not think that you need all that extra power, but think two
or three
years ahead and you may find that the extra 12% wards off yet another

replacement PC for an extra year.

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://word.mvps.org/

"sf" wrote in message
oups.com...
: Sorry about those empty posts. Don't know how they happened -
Google
: "groups" is a dark and mysterious process. I'm posting from Google
: because my home computer died and I haven't decided on the options
I
: want for my new one.
:
: If anyone is in the mood to b helpful, I need advice about basic
things
: like dual channel SDRAM.
: :/
: I know what SDRAM is but why would "dual channel" be something I
might
: need/want?
:
: TIA
: sf
: