Dual sided mixed with non dual sided memory?

TriggerHappy101

Golden Member
Jan 13, 2005
1,006
0
0
Hey. I have two sticks of 512mb Kingston KTM3304/512 (PC2100). But one is dual sided, the other is singel sided. Can I put both in the same mobo and expect it to work?
 

stevty2889

Diamond Member
Dec 13, 2003
7,036
8
81
It could still work. I got some PQI memory, ordered two individual sticks, exact same model number. 1 stick was single sided, one double sided, still works in dual channel.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
240
106
It depends on your mobo. Specifically, the my Asus P4PE manual warns against that except for certain specific slots.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
240
106
With no manual, try it and see. The worst that can happen is no boot or instability. Here is what my manual notes say:

"1. DDR Sockets 2 and 3 share the same rows, so if you install a double-sided DIMM into socket 2, you must leave socket 3 Empty.
2. You may install single-sided DIMMs into DIMM2 and DIMM3 sockets at the same time, nut neither can be X16 DDR module.
3. Double sided X16 DDR DIMMs are not supported on this motherboard."

Conclusion, put the double sided DIMM into socket 1 and the single-sided one into socket 2.
 

drum

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2003
6,810
4
81
i've done this pretty regularly with pc133 but haven't tried it with anything newer
 

TriggerHappy101

Golden Member
Jan 13, 2005
1,006
0
0
Well. Seems to work fine. I ran memtest86 for about 15 passes. And prime95 for about 40 hours :p
HOWEVER: CPUz says it is not running in dualchannel. Is there anyway to force it into dual channel and see if it boots?
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
240
106
That's confusing - do you have a Core Duo CPU?

This thread may relate . . .

Dual
 

Maxspeed996

Senior member
Dec 9, 2005
848
0
0
how many memory slots does your motherboard have? Older boards with 3 slots coupled slots 2&3 together like "CorkyG" above said.. I had an older ASUS board that was like that and was not capable of running dual channel. I THINK it was the P4PE-X.

Either way for Dual channel to work , think about it like this. You must have the RAM balanced , and even (1&3 must have the same amount and 2&4 must have the same amount) across the slots for it to work in dual channel.

example: I had 512 sticks in 1&3 and 256 sticks in 2&4 before I upgraded , and it ran 1.5gigs in Dual channel. Just realize that if the speeds of the memory are different , it will always default to the lowest speed stick you have.

If you've got 3 slots , I wonder if your board will even support dual channel.