running 2 sticks of ddr3 instead of 3 on a triple chanel i7 setup? doable?

Aikon359

Aikon359

Aikon359

Associate
Joined
1 May 2003
Posts
1,094
Location
Peterborough
This is only a temporary fix at the moment but im looking at buying an i7 920 and a tri channel mobo today.

now the issue is... i have 2 sticks of g.skill ripjaw ram on its way to me already from a mate.

can i still run my i7 setup on just 2 sticks? and if so would it just run in single chanel mode? or dual channel?


it will ony be untill i purchase another single stick or share a dual chanel kit with my mate.

thanks all!!! hoping to order in the next couple o hours ;-)
 
Aye, it will work fine and in dual channel mode. Have a look in your motherboard manual to find out where to place the two sticks to run them in dual channel mode properly.

Are the RAM sticks rated to 1.65V or below?
 
How does 4 sticks run in tri channel

I thought it had to be 3 or 6 sticks for tri channel

Awaiting education....;)
 
Pooh said:
How does 4 sticks run in tri channel

I thought it had to be 3 or 6 sticks for tri channel

Awaiting education....;)
Click to expand...

Say you have 4 sticks of ram.

A smart memory subsystem (not checked but how intel does it I think) would either do the following and its likely how you place it physically.

Lets use 1GB sticks

So you have slots 1-6

1: Ram
2: Ram
3: Ram
4: Ram
5: empty
6: empty

Just like a normal motherboard you have 4 gigs with dual channel memory bandwidth.

1: Ram
2: Ram
3: Ram
4: Empty
5: Ram
6: Empty

Now you have 3 sticks (3 gigs) running in tri channel. You also have 1 gig of ram that is running on single channel.

What does that mean? Well the first 3 gigs will be tri channel and have full bandwidth, the last gig will behave like single channel and be slower.

How much compensation the controller does for this other than addressing the single channel stick last I have no idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom