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Dual channel always come in Pair ???

H

holycpu

Member
How come when I buy dual channel ram, it always come in a pair?

Can't I have 1 stick of dual channel ram working or 3 stick of dual channel ram working in a system?

Or it has to be 2 stick or 4 stick combination?

Thanks !
 
oh man. You're confused.

In order to have dual channel you have to have a pair of ram sticks. Dual channel means that basically it can access both sticks of ram at once(increasing bandwidth)

You can't access 1 stick of RAM twice at the same time....
 
One DIMM is 64 bits wide. That is, 64 individual 1s or 0s can be transmitted each cycle.

Dual channel uses 2 memory controllers in conjunction. Together they simulate a full 128 bit wide path. Because there are two memory controllers, each needs its own stick in order give the 128bit wide data path. You simply cannot have a single stick be dual channel without some pretty dramatic changes happening both to the motherboard standards and the memory standards.

The channels have to be balanced. SOME can use 2x one sided on one controller and 1x double sided on the other (for a 3 DIMM configuration) but not all. Most require a identical size and density DIMMs in each channel.

You should always plan on identical DIMMs in each channel, because support for anything else is generally not supported.
 
NO you can't have 3 sticks running dual channel, they will all run single. It is preferred to run 2 sticks, but 4 will work as well. Just with 4 you saturate the memory controller.
 
Originally posted by: AristoV300
NO you can't have 3 sticks running dual channel, they will all run single. It is preferred to run 2 sticks, but 4 will work as well. Just with 4 you saturate the memory controller.
Click to expand...

hehe and in a64s it won't run with 3 sticks at all... (socket 939)
 
Just a silly question, but does it matter if you put your pair of RAM in either tier together or do you have to have them both in the T1 socket?
 
? What do you mean by T1 socket? Depending on your mobo layout you have to verify which sockets are for channel A and channel B and ensure to put one stick in the channel A and one in the channel B to get dual...if you put both sticks in the two channel A sockets it's only single channel...
 
don't know about the dfi layout...for asus the slots are colored same color where you get dual channel (aka slots 1&3), with msi the colors have to be different and the slots next to each other are used (aka slots 1&2).
Should be described in your manual and mentioned by the post screen during post...
 
Originally posted by: holycpu
How come when I buy dual channel ram, it always come in a pair?

Can't I have 1 stick of dual channel ram working or 3 stick of dual channel ram working in a system?

Or it has to be 2 stick or 4 stick combination?

Thanks !
Click to expand...

no no .. i think the best bet is to google dual channel and read the first 50 web pages 😉 you need to get a basic understanding

 
Originally posted by: AristoV300
NO you can't have 3 sticks running dual channel, they will all run single. It is preferred to run 2 sticks, but 4 will work as well. Just with 4 you saturate the memory controller.
Click to expand...

Yes you can run 3 sticks in dual channel.

My board (A7N8X-E Deluxe) only has three slots. 1 DIMM would be on one channel with 2 DIMMS on the other channel. Although it is optimal to balance the channels (ie 512mb on each so 2x 256 and 1x 512mb) it is not required.

-Kevin
 
Originally posted by: AristoV300
NO you can't have 3 sticks running dual channel, they will all run single. It is preferred to run 2 sticks, but 4 will work as well. Just with 4 you saturate the memory controller.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true. You can run 2 256mb ram sticks in slots 1 and 2 and 512mb stick in slot 3 on NF2 motherboards (XP) and still get dual channel. The first 2 256 sticks will turn into 1 channel. For A64 and P4, you need to have 2 or 4 sticks to have dual channel however.
 
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Originally posted by: AristoV300
NO you can't have 3 sticks running dual channel, they will all run single. It is preferred to run 2 sticks, but 4 will work as well. Just with 4 you saturate the memory controller.
Click to expand...

Yes you can run 3 sticks in dual channel.

My board (A7N8X-E Deluxe) only has three slots. 1 DIMM would be on one channel with 2 DIMMS on the other channel. Although it is optimal to balance the channels (ie 512mb on each so 2x 256 and 1x 512mb) it is not required.

-Kevin
Click to expand...


Yes, you can run like that on socket A.

A64s will NOT run with 3 sticks. This info is taken straight from dfi's website. They say that the a64 cannot tell whether to run in single channel or dual with three sticks and attempts to run dual channel. This of course fails and the system will not post.
 
Originally posted by: holycpu
How come when I buy dual channel ram, it always come in a pair?

Can't I have 1 stick of dual channel ram working or 3 stick of dual channel ram working in a system?

Or it has to be 2 stick or 4 stick combination?

Thanks !
Click to expand...

I think the problem is you are confusing a configuration with a type of ram. There is no such thing as "dual channel ram." Dual channel is a configuration you put your ram in. Just like there is no such thing as a RAID hard drive. . .RAID is a configuration by which you connect your hard drives. The reason they sell ram for dual channel in pairs is because for dual channel ram configuration to work, you have to have at least 2 modules (hence the word "dual") and there are other specifications which must be met such as the RAM modules must have the same bus width, density, physical configuration, etc. . .Whether or not you can use dual channel RAM configuration is a function of your motherboards (or CPU's) memory controller and not the RAM itself. There is nothing different about the memory modules marketed as "Dual Channe Kits" from any other DDR module. They just happen to be exactly identical to one another so that they will run in dual channel configuration. So when looking to see if you can use dual channel, refer to your motherboard manual, NOT to the ram modules you want to buy. It is the motherboard that really supports dual channel. Not the memory itself.
 
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