Single versus Dual Channel ECC RAM

[Tock]

Hi guys and girls^^.

Due to the fact that I want to create my first FreeNAS machine next month I was wondering if I should rather get 2 4 GB ECC RAM Sticks or 1 8 GB ECC Stick? Normally in a Windows environment you would go for 2 Sticks but in the end this would either "limit" me to 16 GB RAM where as when I use one 8 GB Stick I'm able to upgrade to 32 GB later on without "wasting" my money on 2 4 GB Sticks.

So the question is will using only one RAM Stick limit the performance and if so, by how much?

 

[cyberjock]

Using one stick now and getting another stick later is the better way to go. There will be a performance penalty because you won't have dual channel, but you're going to seriously hurt performance even more than that by virtue of using only 8GB of RAM. :P

 

[Ericloewe]

For the vast majority of applications, memory speed has a very limited impact on system performance. Since upgrading is in the cards, there's no real reason not to buy one 8GB DIMM.

 

[Tock]

Thanks guys!

S0 when I buy more DIMMs am I allowed to simply shutdown the server, install the DIMMs and FreeNAS wont need special settings for it? I ask because I read that you cant be braindead about adding new drives^^.

 

[cyberjock]

Nope, that's really how you add more RAM to a FreeNAS box. ;)