Mixing RAM brands is okay right? 3 sticks of RAM is okay too right?

[Smartazz]

I currently have 2X1GB sticks of Corsair PC26400(800MHZ) RAM. I want to add one more stick of PC26400 RAM, the stick is 1GB and the brand is "Super Talent". The diffrent brands should work seemlessly right?

One more question: Would having an odd number of RAM sticks cause performance issues or any compatibility issues? Thanks in advance.

 

[jedisponge]

Not necessarily. RAM is touchy, and a variety of factors can contribute to them working, such as voltage and the like. So it could go both ways. That being said, I have used different sticks of RAM in my old Dell, which worked fine from my usage.

And yes, you can use three sticks of RAM, but you'll lose DDR capability.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: jedisponge
Not necessarily. RAM is touchy, and a variety of factors can contribute to them working, such as voltage and the like. So it could go both ways. That being said, I have used different sticks of RAM in my old Dell, which worked fine from my usage.

And yes, you can use three sticks of RAM, but you'll lose DDR capability.

You mean dual channel ?

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: jedisponge
Not necessarily. RAM is touchy, and a variety of factors can contribute to them working, such as voltage and the like. So it could go both ways. That being said, I have used different sticks of RAM in my old Dell, which worked fine from my usage.

And yes, you can use three sticks of RAM, but you'll lose DDR capability.

You mean dual channel ?

overclocking is better if the specs match each other, but the technology onboard the sticks might differ a lot, so don't expect enthusiast performance from your RAM if that's the case

 

[oynaz]

Yes, he means dual channel

 

[Smartazz]

Would the performance hit be bad without running in dual channel for gaming and other tasks such as video encoding?

 

[notanotheracct]

not particularly, it's only recommended that you have matching pairs if you overclock etc. if you're going stock then the only thing i'd look out for are the timings

 

[pcslookout]

Can you only run dual channel with two sticks of ram ? Lets say you want 8 gigs of ram. The only way, I know of to get this is four 2 GB sticks of ram. Could you run that in dual channel or would you have to have only 4 GB of ram total to be able to run in dual channel ?

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: pcslookout
Can you only run dual channel with two sticks of ram ? Lets say you want 8 gigs of ram. The only way, I know of to get this is four 2 GB sticks of ram. Could you run that in dual channel or would you have to have only 4 GB of ram total to be able to run in dual channel ?

So I couldn't run in dual channel if I had 2-2GBsticks and 2-1GB sticks. They all have to be the same size?

 

[notanotheracct]

from my experience with ddr RAM on amd s939, you can run any matching pairs in dual channel, most RAM slots are color coded to allow for that very thing. it should be the same thing for new intels and am2 now

 

[Lemon law]

To Smartazz,

Given the woeful lack of information you have given about your computer---its a no one can possibly know. The point being that you need to go to your mobo makers website and find out what your manual says---and then find some overclocking forums and hopefully find people with your same mobo and general set up. And you also needs some benchmarking programs to know at what settings you are running now. Which will then tell you if you are making positive progress or negative progress.---try memtest86, cpu-z, and either everest 2.2 or pcwizard 2007---all free downloads.

You may be able to get ANOTHER SET of ram working in slots 2 and 4 and keep dual channel--or populating all four slots may result in a slow down of your total memory bus---but trying to run a lone stick in dual channel is a contradictions in terms.---and ram always runs at the pace of the slowest.

And if you want to even come close to knowing anything in advance---you are going to have to gasp start researching things---and even then some amount of trial and error will likely be required unless you get extremely lucky with your automatic bios settings.