buying RAM

[borat_sagdiyev]

I need more ram. I have samsung ddr2 pc3200 and its in dual channel arrangement. on ebay i found some k-byte ram (ddr2 3200) and was wondering if i put it in, would it still work in dual channel mode???

cuz i heard that you need same brand.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I think you should still have dual channel functionality. As long as the RAM are installed in pairs or 2 pairs. OH, depending on the motherboard, hehe.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

ok, right now i have it like this:

can i buy a 1 gig stick and put it like this and still work as dual channel?

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Well it depends on the motherboard chipset. The newer nforce4 boards need to have the memory in pairs, whereas the older ones such as the nforce2 boards will run three sticks in dual channel.


Edit: In your diagram, it's not going to work in dual channel. You'll need two more sticks for dual channel. But in all reality, you won't see or feel a difference in performance between dual and single mode. You will see an improvement just by installing more memory such as faster load times and smoother game play.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

well i have 915g chipset.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

You must have same size config., even if you choose to put three sticks in there. Get all 512MB or all 1GB sticks. That 512MB at the end, move that up. I think it should work.

For three-DIMM dual channel mode, the DIMMs in Channel A must match and the DIMM in Channel B (either slot) must be equal in capacity to all of Channel A.



Rules to Enable and achieve Dual Channel mode, the following conditions must be met:

Matched DIMM configuration in each channel
Same Density (128MB, 256MB, 512MB, etc.)
Matched in both Channel A and Channel B memory channels
Populate symmetrical memory slots (Slot 0 or Slot 1)

Configurations that do not match the above conditions will revert to Single Channel mode.

The following conditions do not need to be met:

Same brand
Same timing specifications
Same DDR speed

Memory channel speed is determined by the slowest DIMM module populated in the system.

 

[X1337]

that is the best your going to get from ^ post.

 

[Nik00117]

When working at my internship I learned taht generally the performace gaiend from dual channel is pretty pointless.In fact you can toss ram into any slot that you please and it SHOULD WORK. I would often times see ram in the 3rd or 4th slot. It would always annoy me and i'd take it out and put it in the first one. But yea just buy aas close as you can get to the same ram. I suggest steering clear of ebay though heh never know what you'll get.

 

[lhuser]

Usually, if you put another stick, making it 3, all three sticks will work, but Dual channel will be disabled. That's just like a slight faster.