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question about duel channeled ram

kingcold9

kingcold9

Member
i currently have 2x2gb ddr3 installed in a p43 chipset based mb. I was wondering if i would be able to continue dual channeling if i got another 2x4gb to put along side it. Would it work as long as i manually set the timings of all 4 sticks to be the same? Or would i be better off to just take out the 2x2gb.
 
Dual channel should be maintained automatically, unless your board really doesn't like the extra RAM. If the new sticks are designed to run at a lower frequency than the old ones, then all sticks will be run at that lower frequency.

It's also worth checking to see whether your board does anything crazy if all four slots are populated. For example, an Athlon 64 s939 board I used would reduce the RAM speed to 333 from 400MHz, and an Athlon XP board could handle dual-channel 2GB RAM unless you wanted to run it at PC3200 (it would handle 2GB PC2700 fine).
 
kingcold9 said:
i currently have 2x2gb ddr3 installed in a p43 chipset based mb. I was wondering if i would be able to continue dual channeling if i got another 2x4gb to put along side it. Would it work as long as i manually set the timings of all 4 sticks to be the same? Or would i be better off to just take out the 2x2gb.
Click to expand...

It SHOULD work...as long as the RAM is compatible.

I ran 2x1 Gb and 2x512Mb for several years...The pairs were matched...but even though it was all Mushkin RAM, the sets obviously were not.
(Asus P4P800-E-Deluxe board Intel 865PE)

It's always best to buy all your RAM at once in matched sets...but sometimes you get lucky and un-matched sets will work.
 
kingcold9 said:
i currently have 2x2gb ddr3 installed in a p43 chipset based mb. I was wondering if i would be able to continue dual channeling if i got another 2x4gb to put along side it. Would it work as long as i manually set the timings of all 4 sticks to be the same? Or would i be better off to just take out the 2x2gb.
Click to expand...

Should work fine even with dissimilar capacity pairs. Try to get the same brand if possible though. I ran 4 DIMMs at DDR2 800 in a P35 for many years.
 
Great thanks for the info guys with any luck if a grab another pair of G skill they should play nice with the pair i currently have.
 
OP, I expect you will not have a problem. The problems some have cited above in going from 2 x 2GB to 4 x 2 GB on an Socket 939 Athlon 64-CPU system are related to how the Athlon 64 CPU's handle RAM. That CPU family does its own RAM management within the CPU, and it is known that they have to slow down slightly when fully loaded with 4 RAM modules. I have a machine like that. However, as I understand it, mobos using the P4 chips handle RAM outside of the CPU, with dedicated RAM management chips on the mobo. You can check the manual for your system, but I expect the mobo-based RAM management system you have will NOT have to make any odd adjustments when you add RAM. It should automatically keep on using Dual-Channel operation.
 
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