Ram Question

My MB has four banks of one (Dual Channel DDR).............in them now are three sticks of 512 DDR...........i was thinking of adding a 1GB DDR stick to the last slot............my question is, since i have Duel Channel DDR would i see about the same increase in performance if i were to add another 512 rather then the bigger stick................maybe better performance with all slots loaded with 512 ?

 

Hi RW .
Please forgive this response as it is not really an answer to your question . More of a question for you . Normally , if 3 slots have 512 , the fourth needs 512 as well . It may not work with 1 G . Just a thought . If it DOES work , then you may see a performance drop since the 4 slots are not matched properly .
Hope that MIGHT help

 

Hi Rainwalker,

The fact that you have 3 sticks of RAM means you are in Single Channel Mode.
If I recall correctly, you will need to change a setting in BIOS to activate Dual Channel mode.
When in Dual Channel mode, the sticks of RAM have to be the same size and preferably a matched pair. A matched pair of 2 sticks of RAM are the same size sold at the same time and they claim to be tested as close to identical in timing and other specs as possible. I have read about people using non-matched pairs (but the same size) without problems.
Dual Channel mode will boost performance, but by how much is the question.
Dual Channel is more timing sensitive. I've read about some people having problems in dual channel. I've set it up without incident for 1GB (512x2).
Check your motherboard manual for the maximum RAM (both total and per stick) in Single Channel and Dual Channel mode, sometimes they are different.

 

Thanks guys.........i have been under the impression that i had 4 banks of 1 .......your comments caused me to double check; this resulted in dicoving the board has 4 banks of two ...............fewwww close one http://www.iamviet.com/forum/images/smilies/smilie_yellow_icon_redface.gif
Thanks for saving my bacon......

 

Glad we could help .

 

and have a peaceful new year you guys