Dual channel?

[KenSr]

Will having 3 sticks of ram defeat the dual channel mode?

 

[MtnMan]

Yep

 

[Turkish]

Yes.

 

[Scott66]

No you can run three sticks on Nvidia Nforce chipsets I lifted this from the nforcersHQ.com forums. Not sure how the Intel MB's work but am planning on getting a 512MB stick to match my OCZ dual channel 256. Just have to make sure the timings and settings match up properly.


Q. How do I set up Dual Channel DDR/TwinBank/DualDDR optimally?
A. In order for DualDDR memory to run at it's optimal speed, you need to have an equal amount of RAM in each channel. Slots 1 and 2 are channel 1, and slot 3 is channel 2. Right now I've got 256MB in slot 2, and 256MB in slot 3. This means 256MB in each channel. If I was to upgrade and wanted to keep full Dual DDR, I would need a 512MB stick, and put it in slot 3, and the 256MB sticks in slots 1 & 2. This would give me 512MB in each channel, and an equal balance. This would give me an optimal Dual DDR setup.
If I were to have, say, 512MB in one channel, and 256MB in the other, only 256MB of the channel with the 512MB stick would be running in Dual DDR, since the channels would not be balanced. The rest of the 512MB stick would run in standard single channel mode, giving below optimal performance.

 

[elcoro2005]

Yes yes no.. could someone clarify this up, in my case my mobo comes with 4 ddr slots, can i buy 2x256 now and later on buy again 2x256, will this setup still comply with the dual channel purpose?

 

[Scott66]

What type of MB do you have elcoro2005, Pretty well all the Nforce 200 boards have 3 slots. Your Manual will give you instructions on keeping the dual channel capability. My board has slots 1 and 2 as bank one and 3 as bank two ( They even color code them brown and blue so I know one from the another)

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: elcoro2005
Yes yes no.. could someone clarify this up, in my case my mobo comes with 4 ddr slots, can i buy 2x256 now and later on buy again 2x256, will this setup still comply with the dual channel purpose?

If your mobo has 4 slots and supports dual channel, you can run w/ 4x256 and still be in dual channel (as far as I can understand anyway)

 

[stevty2889]

It depends on your motherboard. If it's an Intel chipset, then 3 sticks won't work in dual channel mode.