Would somebody be able to give me a good description of dual channel memory and the potential benefits/problems it has. I have seen it mentioned a few times but do not know what its advantages are. Thanks

there is no dual channel memory, just dual channel mobos. When you put ddr memory in a single channel mobo the sticks are addressed independantly using a 64-bit wide path going to each stick. When you put ddr memory in a dual channel mobo two of the sticks are addressed as though they are one, their two 64-bit paths combining to form one 128-bit path. The two ddr sticks need to be the same size for this to work. The benefit is that twice as many bits per second can go between the memory controller and the cpu. Depeding on your cpu fsb, this extra bandwidth may make a difference or it may not. On intel systems is almost always does, on amd systems it rarely does.

Well, I have an AMD system and when I went from 768MB to 1024Mb (two 512MB PC2700 sticks) I noticed a huge gain in loading performance. Windows finishes loading in just under 10 seconds now, where as before, it took 3 times longer.

very interesting fgt67. What motherboard do you use?

Asus A7N8X Deluxe.