Installing 3 DDR-DIMMS?

[userofcomputer]

I'm planning to install another dimm, and I hesitate a bit cause in my mb manual it says that 3 dimms may cause system instability.

For the moment I've got 2 DDR400 512MB installed, the other one I've got is the same (also latencies), but from another manufacturer.

My mb is a nForce4 Ultra socket 939.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience from this, and if I should'nt install the third one.

 

[JDMnAR1]

In and of itself, having three sticks of RAM installed shouldn't be problematic. Best thing is to install it in your system and see if it causes you issues or not.

 

[Bashbelly]

installing ram in non-pairs will disable dual channel. so only if its worth the huge hit in performance, otherwise id either stay with 2 or get a 4th stick imo.

 

[cubby1223]

Well, since the memory controller is built into the cpu, I'd blame the cpu (instead of the mobo's chipset). 3 sticks of ram at ddr400 should work without any problems. But that's almost never the case. I tried to do the same with 2x256mb & 1x512mb and that just would not work at all, system would never even display out to the monitor when set to ddr400, and could at ddr333 but still could not successfully boot to Windows.

Heck, I couldn't even have 1x256mb & 1x512mb running in my computer. I just had to wait out playing a new game I picked up until a new 2x512mb set arrived...

EDIT - I'm referring to the Athlon 64's, I've rarely ever had ram problems on any other chipset - for example just the other week I upgraded a P4 system with 3 ram sockets, all 3 chips having differring ram densities, a single sided 256mb, single sided 128mb, & a double sided 128mb stick, and it worked flawlessly.