Dell Studio XPS

Hi, looking at this comp. and it is listed with

4Gb (4*1024) DualChannel DDR3 1066MHz

I thought the i7 was TriChannel ?

And also 1333MHz ?

What is going on?

Jim

It is/can be tri-channel. Synthectic benchmark results showed both increase and decrease in performance, for different tests when run in tri VS dual channel.

DDR3 is expensive. DDR3 @ 1333MHz is more expensive than DDR3 @ 1066MHz.

What you have seen is some cost-cutting. Personally, I bought some extreme low-latency RAM some years ago and regretted it ever since. Waste of money. No real world usage of my computer justified the 3X increase in expenditure on that one component.

If I ever upgrade my RAM again, I will go for the cheapest (but branded), no matter how 'slow' it is specced to be. It really *really* is not worth spending money on. Take the extra and upgrade your CPU or your video card. Or just buy more RAM.

I defy anyone to make noticable speed gains going from DDR3 1066 to DDR3 1333. 1 or 2 FPS in CrySis. Maybe.

especially don't forget that Core i7 requires special DDR3. The normal one won't run as it needs too much power. Core i7 DDR3 must be <=1.7V, not 2.x like the current bricks.
There are very few models right now, most of them actually come in tri kits (3x 1GB / 3x 2GB / ...)

DDR3 1066 vs DDR3 1333 makes sense because you can set the 1333 one profile lower and overclock your cpu like hell. In case of an i920 from 2.66ghz to 3.6ghz without needing a much stronger cooling.
so the ram is definitely worth it if you intend to go for overclocking.

Seconded.

I upgraded to some relatively high latency memory (DDR2, PC2-6400 CAS 6 instead of the 'better' CAS 5 modules) and found that while the benchmarks for my memory did indeed drop a little, the real-world benefit of having (and being able to afford) a ton more RAM in the first place more than make up for it.