Any help would be appericated

Drakes · 27 Nov 2011 at 16:16

I purchased a Crosshair IV Extreme Amd motherboard running a AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz
Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 1536MB

heres where the problem arises i also purchased,Corsair Dominator GT 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C8 2000MHz Triple Channel Kit (CMT6GX3M3A2000C8) [CMT6GX3M3A2000C8] not really understanding the differance between dual channel and tri channel memory,after reading these fourms i now get im running tri channel in a dual channel board

My question is this, is my memory running 1 set dual and one single or 3 single.also could i buy another stick of the above memory to make it 8gig dual,this would be an expensive option as this memory is £140 or can you get a single stick of the same anywhere.
Or cut my losses and buy 8gig dual from OC's
All of the above was bought from OC's UK

If i have to cut my losses and get a new set of dual memory any recommendations would be great,the rig is for Gaming mainly and web browsing

Surveyor · 27 Nov 2011 at 17:13

How long have you had the RAM?

If you've had it less than 7 working days, and you had it delivered, you can return it using the Distance Selling Regulations for a full refund.

The Memory tab in CPU-Z should show you in what mode your RAM is currently operating but having 3 sticks might confuse the reading.

Drakes · 27 Nov 2011 at 17:19

Ive had it for a good 4/5 months,CPU-Z says its dual but like you said it might be confusing.
Was a silly mistake on my behalf but you live and learn i suppose,the machine runs fine,but if im not getting the most out of it id like to be able to fix the problem

Surveyor · 27 Nov 2011 at 17:37

Performance wise it's probably not going to make a massive difference running 3 sticks instead of 2/4.

Try it.

Play/benchmark one of your games with 3 sticks and then do the same taking one stick out leaving a dual channel pair.

Going from 6GB to 4GB might make a bit of a difference but hopefully you'll see that performance in both configurations is acceptable.

Ultimately if you're not happy running 3 sticks then you take one out leaving 4GB, try and source another singe stick or start again.

Drakes · 27 Nov 2011 at 22:53

Thanks for the advice will give it a try,failing that is there a single 2gig stick of my memory avaible it dosn't have to be same brand just something that will work to make up the full 8gig

Surveyor · 27 Nov 2011 at 23:05

All your RAM has to run at the same speed, timings and voltage so ideally you need a stick with the same settings as your current RAM.

You can always buy a stick with, say, a lower speed but you'll either have to try to overclock it to the speed of your current RAM or you'll have to down clock your current RAM to match.