dual channel question

[CBerger]

ok i have a couple questions about my ram. i've got 3 512 sticks of kingston value ram and i've had it all in as 1.5 gb for a while. now my first question is, is 1 gb of dual channel better than 1.5 gb? and i know to get dual channel you have to put it into the same color slots. but when i took out my 3rd stick windows would not start properly, yet in the boot screen it would show that it's in dual channel mode. so does anyone know how or why it does this and what to fix? i ask because i've been having freezing problems in bf2 and it was suggested to me it could be a ram problem.

 

[Ste]

Well, dual channal is faster, and 2 X 512 is the best setup for gaming which is what you have, try the 2 512 sticks in the last 2 slots and lose the extra stick, when i say lose I mean keep it in a safe place, to figure out if u have a bad stick, put one in at a time boot up and play BF2 till you find the bad one.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Dual Channel gives a very slight performance gain. I would say that the performance between your 2 options is very comparable. THe only way, in my opinion, to find out which way is better is to benchmark.

Run memtest86 to test out your RAM. You might want to follow my guide to random reboots at the top of the troubleshooting section. I know you arent having random reboots, but some of the causes of random reboots are the same as freezing.

 

[CBerger]

the only problem is i cant start up bf2 to pick out the bad stick, or run memtest because windows wont start for me with only 2 sticks in slots 1 and 2. should i try them in slots 3 and 4? and also, how could i have a bad stick if everything works fine with all 3 in there?

 

[Elbatrop1]

You dont need to start windows to run memtest86. You download memtest onto a floppy disk and boot off of it.

 

[Sh0r_ty]

the 1.5gig is better for gaming i think