Windows – Is 1GB + 1GB RAM better than 2GB +0.5GB

DDR2 is not interchangeable/compatible with DDR memory. Your motherboard will only take DDR memory, and the memory you linked to is DDR2 memory, so no, it will not work. You need to find some DDR. Your motherboard is spec'd for DDR400, but it would be OK to get faster DDR RAM; it would just run at 400MHz, so you wouldn't get any speed improvement. Google Product Search might be a good starting place.

That's Correct. This specific naming convention is as follows(each vendor differs slightly):

[32GB][8Gb][x4][DR]

[DIMM_TOTAL_SIZE(in gigabytes)] [DRAM SIZE(in gigabits)] [number of data bits per dram (column width)] [number of ranks]

32GB = (8 * 16 * 2) / 8

8 gigabits * 16 chips (drams) per rank * 2 ranks = 256 gigabits

256 gigabits / 8 = 32 gigabytes.

The number of bank resource a DRAM contains (density) is internal to the DRAM and not consequential here. It is factored into [DRAM SIZE(in gigabits)].

For different DRAM width of the same density:

a x4 will contain twice the number of bank resources of that of a x8

a x8 will contain twice the number of bank resources of that of a x16

there is a performance advantage to having more bank resources per dram, since a dram can only have one page (or row) open per bank at any given time. In general, a x4 will perform better than a x8, which will perform better than a x16 (all other factors being equal) due to pipelining of transactions performed by the memory controller. This is because it takes time (latency) to open a page (activate) and close a page (precharge). You can effectively double the number of bank resources on a channel by adding a rank, but this is less beneficial than doubling the bank resource of the dram due to the fact that only one rank can communicate on the bus at any given time.

-Paul K