Does the Nforce2 chipset have dual channel memory?

Brian23

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I'm in the market for an Athlon XP board and I noticed this one:
Newegg Link

The spec says it's a dual channel board, but there are 3 ram slots. Will memory performance increase if I install the memory in pairs in this board?
 

Brian23

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I don't see any reason to get that ASUS board. I personally have had bad luck with ASUS products. The last 2 ASUS boards I owned had strange quirky issues with the keyboard and mouse randomly locking up. The board I linked to is also quite a bit cheaper. If I was going to spend that much money, I would get a 754 or a 939 board instead. I'm just getting a temporary board to put my XP 1600 in to tide me over until dual cores come out.
 

Brian23

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Originally posted by: fatal
You will receive no noticable improvement running dual channel :disgust:

I'm actually glad to hear this becuase I'm planning on puting 3 sticks of ram in the motherboard that I get. I only asked about dual channel because I thought that only the socket 939 boards and some P4 boards did dual channel.

Also, Is the NForce2 chipset better than the KT600-A? A friend of mine recomended the a KT600-A board by ECS, but I'm not sure if he knows what he's talking about.
 

ClockerXP

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Apr 17, 2002
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My board BIOS screen says it's in dual channel mode (AIDA benchmark results support it too) even though I have all three DIMMS poplulated (DFI NF2 Ultra Infinity). Just food for thought. I DO doubt dual channel makes any noticeable difference.
 

JonathanYoung

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Aug 15, 2003
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Originally posted by: Brian23
Originally posted by: fatal
You will receive no noticable improvement running dual channel :disgust:

Also, Is the NForce2 chipset better than the KT600-A? A friend of mine recomended the a KT600-A board by ECS, but I'm not sure if he knows what he's talking about.

The NF2 chipset is supposed to be better than the KT600A, but recently I built a box based on the ECS KT600A board and Windows loaded pretty fast on it. Subjectively speaking, it seemed faster than an NF2 box I built right before the KT600A. I say just go for whatever's cheaper, since socket A is so mature you most likely won't notice a huge difference between chipsets. Since you mentioned the XP 1600, which I think is 133 FSB, I'd recommend the PCCHIPS M811LU, which costs about $30 at newegg. Let us know what you go with!
 

Jeff7

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Jan 4, 2001
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Yes, nForce2 supports dual channel. Yes, it will work with an odd number of sticks - why have an odd number of slots if it only works in pairs?
However, to get dual channel, you need at least two sticks of RAM - 2 OR 3 sticks will get you dual channel, not just 1. Just so that's really clear. :)
Also, beware of so called "dual channel memory" - it's a marketing gimmick. A single stick of memory cannot be dual channel, because it is the design of the memory controller on the motherboard (or in new systems, onboard the CPU) that determines how many channels are available.

Yes, there is an improvement with dual channel, though with the nForce2 without the Integrated Graphics Processor, it is probably less than a 10% improvement in memory bandwidth. With the IGP, it offers considerable improvements, as the IGP has its own channel through which it can access the system memory. But the latter is probably not a concern for you right now.

Abit's NF7-S rev2.0 was a pretty darn nice board; I have two systems, one with a rev1.2 and the other a 2.0, and both are quite good performers. The NF7-S rev2 is not to be confused with the NF7-S2, a different board, and not as tweaker friendly.
 

ChineseDemocracyGNR

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Sep 11, 2004
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I would seriously consider getting a refurbished mobo, then you won't lose any money when you sell it to move to socket 939 in the future.

The KT600 has its advantages when compared to the nForce2, mainly price and great disk performance (which makes the system "feel" faster for simple things). The nForce2 has a slightly faster memory controller, VIA only cought up with the KT880. I'd recommend the cheaper of the 3.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-501R&depa=0
 

keeleysam

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Feb 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
I would seriously consider getting a refurbished mobo, then you won't lose any money when you sell it to move to socket 939 in the future.

The KT600 has its advantages when compared to the nForce2, mainly price and great disk performance (which makes the system "feel" faster for simple things). The nForce2 has a slightly faster memory controller, VIA only cought up with the KT880. I'd recommend the cheaper of the 3.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-501R&depa=0

Refurbs suck cuz you dont get the I/O backplane.