Enabling/configuring dual channel DDR RAM...

[sxftdeep]

So I just purchased two sticks of Samsung PC3200 512MB DDR RAM and installed them into my Abit AN7 board. My question is this: If I put the sticks in the two slots that are the same colour, is there somewhere in the BIOS that I have to enable or configure the RAM to be dual channel, or does it automatically become dual channel? Sorry for the n00b question, this is my first time using or, attempting to use, dual channel memory.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

 

[sxftdeep]

Anybody?

 

[Viper96720]

Two close to each other

 

[sxftdeep]

OK that's all fine. The two light blue slots, closest to eachother, are filled with a 512MB stick each. Is there something I have to do to enable dual channel "mode", or is it automatically enabled.

BTW, the chipset on the AN7 is the nForce2 Ultra 400, if that helps anybody answer my question.

 

[Viper96720]

It's 1-3 or 2-3 automatically dual channel. Not the 2 close to each other sorry about that. Manual is really vague. So the seperated one plus one of the close ones.

 

[sxftdeep]

OK thanks I'll give that a try and see if my memory benchmarks in SiSoft Sandra improve or decline any.

 

[sxftdeep]

That seemed to help somewhat... I'm still only getting about 2.5 GB/s according to Sandra though. Isn't the bandwidth supposed to be something closer to 5.2 GB/s?

 

[Viper96720]

review for an7
Looks like around 2.8GB/s

 

[mechBgon]

SiSoft Sandra isn't something you should pay too much attention to Remember that on the nForce2 Ultra400 chipset, dual-channel mode is good for about a 5% performance boost in actual real-life applications like games. The system just doesn't need most of the additional bandwidth. It doesn't hurt anything, no, but the glass is already 95% full with just one channel. Now stop running Sandra benchmarks and go have some fun fragging thine enemies

 

[sxftdeep]

OK guys, thanks for all your help. I installed the memory in DIMM slots one and two and paused the boot process at the post screen and it said that the RAM is indeed running in dual channel mode. Thanks again.