Do you group the new "tri-channel" DDR3 memory in groups of 3's?

Hello everyone,
Everyone once in a while I get a e-mail from Dell about thier top end systems. The way I usually learn stuff is by asking questions about why they arrange thier systems in a particular manner.

I see that they have the new "tri-Channel" DDR3 memory usually together in groups of 3? Is that the way you are supposed to buy it now?

Back in the day, I remember I had to purchase identical sticks of memory in groups of 2. For instance, I still have an old Dell PC I bought 6 years ago that has Rambus memory in which you are forced to buy 2 identical sticks to work properly.

1. Am I on the right track by thinking this is the same situation?

2. How are the new motherboards set up that use DDR3? Do they have 3 slots for memory for the cheaper boards and 6 slots for the larger amounts?

Tri-channel memory is for the new intel X58 chipset which supports any where from 3-6 dimm slots. Most motheboard manufactors recommend indentical dimms for compatiblity.

3 or 6 is fine, it is generally better to get 3 sticks of 2gb over 6 sticks of 1gb, for stability as well as overclocking (also most of the time cheaper). 6Gb is usually the most of what people actually need.

The Ram doesn't have to be identical, but there are less problems using the spame speed and timings at similar voltages. Just makes it easier

So for example, you wanna buy (3) sticks of 1GB for a total of 3GB, or (6) sticks of 1GB for a total of 6GB?

I see that DDR3 comes inn a maximum size of 2GB at the moment... Does that mean you can potentially buy (6) sticks of 2GB DDR memory and fill up all 6 slots for a total of 12GB???

(I know you have to have Vista64 just to recognise amounts of memory over 3.5GB but will it recognise 12GB of memory??)

TommyHolly said:

So for example, you wanna buy (3) sticks of 1GB for a total of 3GB, or (6) sticks of 1GB for a total of 6GB?

I see that DDR3 comes inn a maximum size of 2GB at the moment... Does that mean you can potentially buy (6) sticks of 2GB DDR memory and fill up all 6 slots for a total of 12GB???

(I know you have to have Vista64 just to recognise amounts of memory over 3.5GB but will it recognise 12GB of memory??)

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's how it works. Vista, or any other 64-bit OS would be able to recognize the 12GB memory.