Triple Channel Ram in a Dual Channel Board

luckygiant

luckygiant

luckygiant

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25 Feb 2011
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10
Hi,

I purchased a second hand pc which has 6gb (3x2Gb) OCZ Gold DDR3 PC3 10666 1333MHz Triple Channel.

My motherboard is a MSI 790GX-G65 which has 4 memory slots, but can only run at on dual channel (AM3 CPU).
I'm using Windows 7 64Bit.

So what are my best options:
1) Keep the 6gb in the board as 3x2Gb modules, I assume this runs in single channel?
2) Remove 2gb from the computer and run 2x2gb (4gb) in dual channel mode?
3) Buy another 2Gb module and run 4x2Gb (8gb) in dual channel mode?
4) Sell the ram and purchase a dual channel kit because you can't run triple channel memory in dual mode?

What you'd recommend?

Cheers,
Jason
 
Hi there,

May I ask what RAM your 790GX system is currently using? Will you be adding this RAM to the new OCZ Gold RAM in the 790GX board?

Also, may I ask what you will be using the PC for mainly? Would you make good use out of 8GB RAM?
 
Thanks for the reply. I will be doing some modeling so the extra ram could come in handy. Besides that, the extra stick I'm looking at is only 5 pounds shipped so for that cost I'm not worried at all if I don't use it.
What I need to know now is if the stick of ram I'm looking at is compatible with my existing ram.

The current ram I'm using is:
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Triple Channel (OCZ3G1333LV6GK)

The extra stick I'm looking at for £5 is:
OCZ OCZ3G1333LV2G 2GB DDR3 PC3 10666 1333MHz

Could I add this to the triple channel kit to give me 4x2Gb in dual mode or is it not compatible?

Cheers
 
Memory isn't 'dual channel' or 'triple channel' - it's a motherboard property, and ram is sold in sets for certain motherboards.

A DDR3 stick with a certain freq and timing is the same as another equivalent DDR3 stick. If you put two sticks in dual channel slots then they will run in dual channel. If you put them in triple channel slots and add a third stick they'll run in triple channel.

So yes, it'll be fine :).
 
That 2GB sounds like a good match - same brand, same frequency, same latency. In fact, looking at images of it - it looks like it is a OCZ Gold module. Hence you have a very high chance of it working fine.

If you add this to the existing 3 sticks of RAM in your 790GX dual channel board - then it will run absolutely fine in dual channel model. Physically, the RAM modules in the triple channel kits are the same type as those in dual channel kits - its just that all three of the modules are the exact same type to ensure they will all run together properly out of the box.
 
Thats fantastic, I'm very pleased it just got easier.

Thanks very much for the dual/triple channel education. Computing isn't my job so everything I know (which isn't a heap lol) is from reading and I can imagine theres quite a few gaps in my understanding of things :)

Bascially what you're saying is all ram can run in dual/triple channel mode, however it is the motherboard that determines this feature.

The only reason memory kits are sold as "dual" or "triple" channel is because they are of the same type hence have a high chance of working. Hence in theory I could use another another brand (same speed), but it would just have a low chance of working?

How would I know if the moemory is operating correctly in dual mode?
 
luckygiant said:
The only reason memory kits are sold as "dual" or "triple" channel is because they are of the same type hence have a high chance of working. Hence in theory I could use another another brand (same speed), but it would just have a low chance of working?
Click to expand...

Exactly

luckygiant said:
How would I know if the moemory is operating correctly in dual mode?
Click to expand...

Download CPU-Z, install and run it. Then go to the memory tab and see what it says in the "channels #" part.
 
joxang said:
Memory isn't 'dual channel' or 'triple channel' - it's a motherboard property, and ram is sold in sets for certain motherboards.

A DDR3 stick with a certain freq and timing is the same as another equivalent DDR3 stick. If you put two sticks in dual channel slots then they will run in dual channel. If you put them in triple channel slots and add a third stick they'll run in triple channel.
Click to expand...

Wow i had no idea about this, learn something new everyday :)
 
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