So I'm thinking of upgrading the RAM on my computer: currently I have two RAM chips, one 1 GB and one 4 GB. I'm debating on what's the best way to do the upgrade to get the best performance.
Here's what I have in mind: upgrading my RAM to maximize my performance as best I can. I was originally thinking of swapping out the 1 GB RAM chip for a 16 GB RAM chip for a total of 20 GB. However, a few people mentioned that I'd be better off swapping out both chips for two 8 GB chips running in dual channel mode than going with 20 GB total. This seems a bit odd to me, but I'm more of a software person than a hardware person, not knowing much about how hardware works.
Thus, my question is: which would these options would be faster? A system with 20 GB, with a 16 GB chip and a 4 GB chip or a system with 16 GB, two 8 GB RAM chips running in dual channel mode.
As far as operating systems go, I'm running Windows 7 64 Bit, although I'm thinking of creating a new partition to run Debian Linux one of these days on my computer. However, the Windows OS is the one I care about for the most part since it's always going to be the one used the most.
