Dual Channel

[Nubius]

Yes another dual channel question Does the RAM you buy have to be somewhat 'high-performance' RAM or the RAM be labeled to the effect of 'works in Dual Channel' or is it all based on whether or not the motherboard can do it? I'm planning on getting the ABit NF7-S2G so I know it has dual channel capabilities, but my main question is, I have a PC3200 512mb stick of kingston value ram. If I buy another exact stick of that, will they be able to run in Dual Channel or is it like I said where the RAM has to be designed around being able to communicate with another stick and run in Dual Channel mode?

Thanks all!

 

[Regulus]

Both of my RAM sticks are the exact same, and they run in DC. Of course, they came together. But if you get the exact same RAM stick as your other one, I don't see why it wouldn't run in DC.

 

[The Merlin]

The only thing that dictates DC compatibility is the mobo, all you need are matching sticks of RAM

 

[wongb18c]

Noob question here... why is dual channel ram faster or more efficient than regular ram.... and if I wanted to run dual channel ram why do I have to buy 2 of the same exact mem sticks?
Last question... what are some good/popular dc ram among people on these forums and how much money do they run?

 

[Nubius]

The only thing that dictates DC compatibility is the mobo, all you need are matching sticks of RAM

Ahhh merlin, thanks, there was the answer I was needing. I knew you had to have matching RAM sticks, that wasn't a problem, I just wanted to make sure it was the mobo that dictates whether RAM ran in dual channel and not the RAM Architecture itself.

why is dual channel ram faster or more efficient than regular ram....

It's all about communication between the CPU and RAM. When they are in Dual Channel they are communicating at the fastest speed possible. It's *I THINK* somewhat like having dual processors, it splits up the power and uses two as one where when you have two different sticks not in dual channel it accesse's each seperately which takes more time to do. I'm sure others can better explain it to you but I THINK that's the main reason

and if I wanted to run dual channel ram why do I have to buy 2 of the same exact mem sticks?

because the name says so basically. it's DUAL channel, DUAL means two so you have to have two sticks. You have to have the exact SAME sticks because they need to be able to communicate together. If you have two sticks built by two different companies, they could have different speeds and architectures which would disallow it being able to be used in dual channel. You can't have dual processors by putting in two different processors right? Same thing applies

 

[Blind_Arrow]

get exact stick (or even similar latency stick) and you'll have dual channel.

i dont know about ABIT, but with updated BIOS on Asus, it'll show at start up that board is running on Dual-Chanel Linear Mode.

 

[ag3]

The motherboard as well as the CPU must support dual channel. Any module can be used in a dual channel configuration.

 

[Nubius]

ok I plan on getting the NF7-S2G board with 35w 2400+ XP-M chip. I don't see anywhere on chip specifications mentioning Dual Channel.....you happen to know if that combo will work for Dual Channel ag3?

 

[Blind_Arrow]

this Mobo i believe is on N-Force-2 chipset, isnt it, if it isnt written there dual channel, then some vendors write it in tihs waym Dual DDR 400/333 etc. see as if tihs is written there, else n-Force-2 is Dual DDR Enabled. (not to worry)


btw, 35W (i know the mistake) ,but still, you processor will take around 62Watts, how can u run full system on 35W (HAHAHAHA, Kididng, No Offence)

else, XP-M?? whats that buddy? M chips represents Mobile Processors.....ar you gonna install this mobo in ur laptop?

 

[ag3]

Nubius

That combination will be capable of dual channel.