4x512mb or 2x1gb ram?

[jorbo87]

I have 2x512mb of ddr2 667(5300) ram right now. I am wanting to upgrade to 2gigs of ram, but I want to know which would be better? I could buy 2 more 512s to make 2gigs or I could wait about a month or two and buy 2x1gb sticks. I really really don't want to have to wait to get 2x1gb sticks. So, is there a big performance difference between 4x512 and 2x1gb ram. I heard that you can run dual channel with 4x512. If that's true then I will probably get another 2x512.

So can anyone tell me the pros and cons of the two?

 

[DonNagual]

There is a slight performance increase in using 2 sticks vs. 4 sticks to get to 2Gb but not huge.

Here are some benchmarks for you:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/2gb-ram_7.html

 

[Tedster]

also some motherboards don't respond well to more than 2 sticks. Bear also in mind more sticks use more power. It is better to have 2x 1gb