Dual Channel Ram question.

knob · Post by **knob** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 1:50 pm

Do you actually have to buy a 2 pack of ram to get Dual Channel out of it? Or can you just buy two seperate sticks that are exactly the same?

If I go to PriceWatch.com, I can get two sticks of generic RAM much cheaper than any dual pack on Newegg ($100 vs $145). How reliable is generic ram?

("Generic" is what they have listed for the brand name)

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 4:02 pm

you can get two sticks seperatly as long as they are identical.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 5:08 pm

identical as in brands, or just the features

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 6:18 pm

identical as in features. I believe size [256, 512, etc] speed [2700, 3200 etc] and probably timmings[3-3-3-8, 4-4-4-12, etc] as well. I'm not 100% sure about timmings but I think so.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 6:20 pm

ok, how do I know if I have that set up correctly? Can anyone give me instructions on what to do?

My current set up, I have 3 sticks of 512 mb PC3200.

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 1:42 pm

Can't do it with an odd number of sticks. If your mobo supports dual channel you should have four ram slots. Two will be one color and two will be a different color. The sticks in the slot of the same colr need to be the ones matched up. The performance increase on the amd side is not that big. It is bigger with intel.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:12 am

so technically have 3 sticks is faster than have 2 sticks in dual channel mode, correct?

Coskesh · Post by **Coskesh** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 2:18 pm

I've ordered 'generic' ram from Pricewatch before, go with NewEgg or Crucial.com... don't ever mess around with cheap no-name Ram would be my suggestion.

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:19 pm

Yes having 3 sticks your overall system performance would be better than 2 sticks in dual ram. 4 sticks in dual ram would be even better!

knob · Post by **knob** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:13 pm

Okay, another question.

If I were to upgrade from two sticks of 256 PC2100 (non-dual channel) to two sticks of 512 PC3200 (Dual channel w/ AMD processor), would it be a big upgrade?

I mean, is PC2100 really that much slower than 3200 in dual channel?

SirReal · Post by **SirReal** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:08 pm

Valael wrote:Okay, another question.

If I were to upgrade from two sticks of 256 PC2100 (non-dual channel) to two sticks of 512 PC3200 (Dual channel w/ AMD processor), would it be a big upgrade?

I mean, is PC2100 really that much slower than 3200 in dual channel?

A percent slower, perhaps. OTOH, going from 512MB to 1024MB is going to get you a large performace boost.

knob · Post by **knob** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 9:07 am

If I just slapped two identical sticks of 512 into my computer, how can I tell if they're actually running dual channel? Would it say?

I put them in the slots that were both colored blue and it also recognizes both sticks. Previous to this, it would say "Enabling Performance Mode" which I assume because it had to thottle back to support my sticks of PC2100 (The stuff I bought was 3200).

jpinard · Post by **jpinard** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:13 pm

Valeal what mobo do you have? When I had an Nforce mobo, it was say in the BIOS startup that it was running in dual channnel mode.

knob · Post by **knob** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:23 pm

ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe nForce2 Ultra 400

jpinard · Post by **jpinard** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:44 pm

That's what I used to have. It should say when you boot up in the BIOS thing something like dual channel enabled. It will not be enabled unless you turned it on in the BIOS.

Be careful though. Unless you RAM is perfect it may cause instability (it did on my old board).

knob · Post by **knob** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:37 pm

Well, the ram I bought is this:

Click Here

Many people report it working great in dual channel mode.

Also, I ordered the OEM and received the retail version. No complaints, or anything. Just weird. Retail was only $4 or $5 more.

jpinard · Post by **jpinard** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 2:38 am

Did you see where to set it in the BIOS?