RAM question

[substance12]

I have an 8rda+, 1700xp nonOC, 256+512 ram (pc2100 i think). this board supports a dual ram configuration I believe. To do this I would need 2 identical sticks... I think.

would it be worthwhile to purchase, say 2x 512 pc3200 sticks?

 

[CZroe]

They only need to be identical for dual channel operation (Double the memory bandwidth), but any two sticks will operate just fine as two independant modules for increasing the total amount of memory.

 

[substance12]

i think dual channel operation is what i'm referring to. I'm just wondering if it will be worth it if i

1) get another pc2100 512 stick so I can run dual ch. (to match my current 512 pc2100)

or

2) get 2 pc 3200 sticks and also run dual ch

or

3) do nothing 🙂

 

[lordtyranus2]

If you have 3 dimms, buy a 256 stick and match 2 256s vs the 512. not sure if that works though.

 

[Rafe]

Originally posted by: lordtyranus2
If you have 3 dimms, buy a 256 stick and match 2 256s vs the 512. not sure if that works though.

As an 8RDA user currently running a single 512 in channel 1 and a pair of 256's in channel 2, I can say with assurance, "Yes, it does."

However, there's a caveat - I had to substantially relax the speed I was running my memory at in order to do so. Either memory configuration [1x512 or 2x256, either in single or dual channel mode] would run at 205MHz @ 2-2-2-5 [XMS3200C2 modules]. However with all three slots populated, I had to kick the memory down to 5/6 of the FSB [169/170MHz] at the same timings to remain stable, and even at more relaxed timings [2-3-3-6], it wasn't happy at 180MHz.