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DDR Dual Channel Memory

C

ChevyMech

Junior Member
Hello all. I have a new motherboard that says it supports dual channel ddr. I don't know exactly what that means. I just bought a stick of PC3200 Samsung with 512megs. The board is an MSI K7N2G-ILSR and can support up to 400mhz ram but the FSB for the processor only goes to 333 mhz. Optimally, I am told I should let the RAM and FSB run at the same speed because my board supports "synchronous" something and it should be faster than running it out of sync. What would be the best way to set up my system? My processor is an AMD Athlon XP 2700+ 333. All is brand new in the box waiting for me to put it together.
 
Because your board has the onboard video, a second stick of memory would greatly increase the gaming performance of the onboard video. Generally, it is best to run the memory in sync with the CPU, and I think the motherboard will force that on you anyway if you have the onboard video in use.

It's important to get the heatsink on in the right direction. One end of its base will have a step cut into it, which is there to provide clearance over the solid end of the CPU socket where the locking lever swivels. Good illustrated guide is found here. That's in PDF format, so if you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can download it for free from here.

To give you more in-depth info about the dual-channel DDR, here's good info: benchmarks comparing single-stick and dual-stick performance when using the onboard video Welcome to the Forums and good luck with the new system! 😀
 
Thanks for the info. I don't intend to use the onboard video. I bought the board for it's bundle of other goodies not included with the lower version of the same product line. I couldnt resist. I will be using my Visiontek GeForce 4 Ti4600. I eventually want to get an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro but they are to expensive still. My buddy has one and he likes it alot. Is there anything else that would improve performance wise besides just the onboard video and with the exception of having more Ram?
 
If you're not going to use the onboard video, then I think you're pretty well set. A heatsink with a copper base or a copper inset is recommended since the CPU core puts out a lot of heat from such a small area... what do you have lined up for cooling? Here's one that I like: Thermalright SK-7, which can use a fairly quiet 80mm fan instead of the little 60mm guys that have the higher-pitched noise.

If you'll be using WindowsXP, then here are some tips:
  • Download Service Pack 1 and burn it to a CD, if you or your friends have a CD burner. You want to install the operating system, then immediately apply Service Pack 1 before installing your motherboard's drivers, so you'll need it on CD most likely.
  • I would use the nVidia 2.03 driver set right from the start, so you might want to download that and burn it to CD as well: WinXP driver set. If you are going to be using WinXP, watch the prompts carefully when installing these drivers, and say No if asked to install the "SW" Performance IDE driver. This will cue it to use the standard drivers, which work better in some situations such as when using a CD burner.
  • If you're using another operating system, the other driver packs can be found here
 
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