Question about filling up RAM slots

[btsdev]

Hey guys,

I have an A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2 board and I currently have 2 out of the 3 RAM slots occupied -- with a 512 stick and a 256 stick. I want to give the machine a major RAM boost.

Can I just buy a 1GB stick and just throw it on the board, having 3 full slots, or do/should I toss the 256 to only have 2 slots filled. I'm asking because sometimes people say stuff like "have the first and third slot filled, NOT the second, on this board..."

So in total, I'd have 1.75GB in this box with all three slots filled if I did the naive route of buying that stick and putting it in.

Thanks in advance for your advice,

Brian

 

[Jester666]

If you just stick another stick of Ram in, it will probably work, you just won't be running in dual channel mode anymore so your memory bandwidth with be reduced.

 

[btsdev]

Thanks for the response. So if I wanted to keep dual channel mode, would I be able to do this by scraping the 256 stick and sticking a 1gig stick in, in its place?

Sorry if I'm being redundant but I want to make sure I'm sane before I spend $100+. Thanks

Brian

 

[Sonikku]

Judging from the performance of AM2, will the lack of bandwidth really make a big difference?

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Jester666
If you just stick another stick of Ram in, it will probably work, you just won't be running in dual channel mode anymore so your memory bandwidth with be reduced.

if he has one 512 stick and one 256 stick then there is no way he is running in dual channel mode anyways.

 

[Tsuwamono]

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: Jester666
If you just stick another stick of Ram in, it will probably work, you just won't be running in dual channel mode anymore so your memory bandwidth with be reduced.

if he has one 512 stick and one 256 stick then there is no way he is running in dual channel mode anyways.

ya i was just sitting here thinking "how the hell did he pull that one off? lol

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: avi85

if he has one 512 stick and one 256 stick then there is no way he is running in dual channel mode anyways.

on nF2 he can if he has them in appropriate slots & the RAM modules are similar.
what happens is that he will get dual channel access on 2x256 & the other 256on the 512 DIMM will only be accessed at single channel rate.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: Heidfirst

Originally posted by: avi85

if he has one 512 stick and one 256 stick then there is no way he is running in dual channel mode anyways.

on nF2 he can if he has them in appropriate slots & the RAM modules are similar.
what happens is that he will get dual channel access on 2x256 & the other 256on the 512 DIMM will only be accessed at single channel rate.

turns out your right
I guess you learn something new every day.