NForce2 Dual Channel Ram Question

[Heeter]

Hi Guys,

I presently have 2 x 256 PC3200 ram sticks (one in each channel, Dual DDR mode), I am thinking about moving the second 256Ram stick into the first channel,second slot, then acquiring another 512 stick for the second channel. Thus, still making it still Dual DDR enabled (2 x 512). My question was does the new 512 stick have to be the same CAS latency and manufacturer as the original two 256'ers? Or can it just be a PC3200 512 stick of similar specs from a different manufacturer?

Thanks in advance.

Heeter

 

[LeeJend]

Put the new stick in the last slot. The dual channel RAM needs to be the same size.

As for the speed/latency. Just set up the bios so it runs stable. I've used mixed types and it made no difference.

Also, there isn't much improvement with the AMD XP CPUs the FSB is the limiting factor especially with 3200 RAM.

 

[plex]

I'm pretty sure that using all 3 slots will disable dual channel.

 

[FastGame]

I'm pretty sure that using all 3 slots will disable dual channel.

Two slots are on the same channel and the third is on the a sepreate channel, using all 3 slots will be dual channel. In order to run your ram in a balanced dual channel configuration the third slot needs to be populated with the total of the first two slots. slot #1 256mb + slot #2 256mb = slot #3 512mb.

As LeeJend suggest, set the ram timings in the bios and you should be fine, provided the new ram is compatible with you MB.

 

[Heeter]

Thanks LeeJend, FastGame.

I did know that DualDDr would still be enabled using the 2x256 & 1x512 setup. I was just wondering about the CAS differences between the sticks. I guess if I just set it to Auto in the BIOS. It is set at Auto anyways in my setup.

Thanks again,

Heeter

 

[dreamliner77]

IIRC, with the auto setting, the ram will run at the slowest speed of any one of the sticks. Best to play around with the settings at this point. You may be able to bump the slower sticks up a hair, and the faster down a hair.

 

[Heeter]

I guess my main concern is that I am running @ 400mghz x 2 FSB. After that, I should play with the settings a little bit and tweak it. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Heeter

 

[Goatman]

People have many mis-conceptions about the Dual Channel RAM on the nForce 2

(I have one, I know how it works)

On my Abit I have 3 x 256...

256 in 1 channel, and 512 in the second. Dual channel works fine, it will work with un equal sized RAM... it's work with 1 512, and 1 256.... it's more robust then you people seem to think... timings don't matter, to it (they don't have to be the same) nor does speed.

my suggest would be to put all three in, then bump the timings down and get them as tight as you can. Go by what the manufacturer suggests for the new RAM, see if it'll boot, if it won't, back off a little

 

[Sazar]

amd related dual channel on athlon XP boards is not that great a performance increase over a single channel board... PR works wonders but the net increase in performance from having more free mem probably will be as important as the theoretical performance benefits...

p4 boards and sckt 940 (and eventually 939) boards have a very real and visible performance improvement using dual channel memory...

seeing as how that is the case... with a socket A board you might be better off getting more ram and being happy with that (in this case 1 gig v/s 512) than worrying so much about dual channel v/s single channel performance of the various clip configs..

basically all the memory is going to run @ the cas latency and the memory spd of the slowest mem...