Dual Channel Intel Question

idioteQnology · Sep 27, 2003

i have the rig in my sig and in a couple months want to add another 512mb ram and figured that another kit of 2x256mb hyperx will still let me run dual channel with a total of 1gb of ram. i figure it wont be as tight as 2x512mb sticks but i would still get the benefit of dual channel and 1gb of ram with 4x 256mb of ram right? or will i lose dual channel.

whatever2003 · Sep 28, 2003

You will lose that dual channel you have and gain totally mediocre/bogus performance plus you will introduce more instability to the memory subsystem. Really bad idea.

Jognt · Sep 28, 2003

you would gain dual dual ddr

afaik, a lot of mobos have dual channel nowadays and to use it, youd have to put the same sticks in dimm1 and dimm3 , and if ud put same sticks in dimm2 and dimm4 then ud have dual, dual ddr

still, afaik...

whatever2003 · Sep 28, 2003

OK, he has not exactly been precise and I wasn't reading it carefully I guess, but here is a complete answer:

1. If you add ONE STICK of 512 MB to your 2x256 MB dual channel you will loose that dual channel.

2. If you add 2x256 to that 2x256 dual channel you will get double dual channel.

In both cases the stability might be an issue. I actually run the #2 for like a week on my system and I lost about 3 MHz on FSB plus I had to relax the timmings.

batboy · Sep 28, 2003

Running either 2 or 4 sticks of similar RAM will give you dual channel. Using 4 sticks instead of 2 sticks "might" result in slightly less of a max overclock and "might" mean you have to relax your RAM timings slightly. It's usually not a big difference, but for people that are trying to squeak out every ounce of performance, then that might not be acceptable. As long as you're aware of that fact and you're OK with it, then go for it.

idioteQnology · Sep 28, 2003

found this very interesting article on anandtech which tackles my exact question.

they actually found that dual chanel ram systems run BEST with FOUR sticks of ram

i am going to pick up wx256mb of hyperx pc3500 and this way i should lose no oc'ing ability. its a good read this article.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1839

their findings match the intel white paper results for how many sticks of ram perfomr best in a dual channel configuration.

whatever2003 · Sep 28, 2003

they actually found that dual chanel ram systems run BEST with FOUR sticks of ram

Try it yourself. That is certainly not the case in my experience. Beside having 4 sticks very close will increase the temperature of all four. In my case I have the heat spreaders almost touching each other. Check it out and say what happened.

idioteQnology · Sep 28, 2003

i will. when i get my xmas bonus i am picking up a 2x256mb kit of pc3500 hyperx and see what happens.

Dual Channel Intel Question

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