A little advice please

yfas29 · 2 Feb 2006 at 01:26

Hello wise ones!!

I was just wondering. I recently upgraded from a 256mb module of twinmos ddr 400 ram to 2 x 512mb of corsair value select, and wanted to know if I would also be able to use the use 256mb module as well, or would I loose dual channel mode.?

I have a A64 3200+ @ 2.5ghz and my ram is on a 166 devider. and is running @ 208mhz. I have read that the venice core has a much improved memory controller and can handle mismatched modules but I'm not sure about dual channel.

Any advise would be much appreciated

smids · 2 Feb 2006 at 11:06

3 sticks always removes dual channel IIRC. Only even numbers retain DC.

yfas29 · 2 Feb 2006 at 17:29

Thanks for that smids, will give it a miss.

man_from_uncle · 2 Feb 2006 at 20:03

Actually 3 sticks doesn't ALWAYS remove dual channel; it only does on motherboards with 4 slots. I don't actually know any nforce4 boards that do this, but it was common enough on nforce2 boards. Just balance slots 1 with 2 and 3 (at least for Abit nforce2 boards). It'll always be a bit hit and miss as you can never be completely sure that it will run it dual, but it's as reliable as running 2 identical but unmatched sticks.

smids · 2 Feb 2006 at 20:32

man_from_uncle said:
Actually 3 sticks doesn't ALWAYS remove dual channel; it only does on motherboards with 4 slots. I don't actually know any nforce4 boards that do this, but it was common enough on nforce2 boards. Just balance slots 1 with 2 and 3 (at least for Abit nforce2 boards). It'll always be a bit hit and miss as you can never be completely sure that it will run it dual, but it's as reliable as running 2 identical but unmatched sticks.

Good point. I completely forgot about the 3 slot nF2's.