Dual Channel with 3 sticks of RAM...

[rapier8]

Is it possible for me to do it? I have 2 x 256MB and 1 512MB. My mobo has 3 ram slots, 2 green, and 1 purple. To do dual channel with two sticks, i put one in the purple and one in the green. Can i get 1024MB of dual channel by putting the 512 in the purple slot and the 2 256 in the green slot? I'd liek to use all of the ram modules.

 

[barney_3d]

IIRC Dual means Two :suspiciou not three

 

[spartanslayer]

Just get one more 512 stick and you'll have 1.5GB of ram in dual channel.

 

[JimL]

most dual channel mobo's will automatically go back down to single channel mode when 3 sticks of ram are inserted.

 

[Didou]

It depends on the motherboard. A nForce 2 based motherboard can run in dual channel with three memory modules. If we're talking about Athlon64s, they're either socket-754 (which doesn't have a dual channel memory controller in the first place) or socket-939 (which will switch to single channel with 3 memory modules).

On the Intel side, I believe it will revert to single channel mode aswell.

Basicly, anything other then a nForce 2 motherboard will revert to single channel.

 

[barney_3d]

most dual channel mobo's will automatically go back down to single channel mode when 3 sticks of ram are inserted.

exactly dual channel only works in pairs

 

[Didou]

Except on most nForce 2 motherboards.

 

[werty316]

Its recommend to use matched pairs as this won't have as many problems as whne you sue 2 different sticks of ram. Also some boards can't handle 4 sticks at 1T.

 

[rapier8]

Except on most nForce 2 motherboards.

I have an MSi K7N2 Delta-ILSR, it is an nforce2 motherboard. you say i can do it, how do i set it up?

 

[Didou]

On nForce 2 boards, the first two DIMMs were considered to be channel #1 & the the third was channel #2. A performance tip for the best memory performance is to have the same amount of memory on both channels so that would mean putting the two 256mb modules on the DIMM 1 & 2 (channel #1) & the 512mb module on DIMM 3 (channel #2).

 

[rapier8]

On nForce 2 boards, the first two DIMMs were considered to be channel #1 & the the third was channel #2. A performance tip for the best memory performance is to have the same amount of memory on both channels so that would mean putting the two 256mb modules on the DIMM 1 & 2 (channel #1) & the 512mb module on DIMM 3 (channel #2).

Thx, i'll have to do this and let you know how it goes. I was going to try it this way anyway but i wanted to make sure i had something to go along with my speculation.

 

[Tedster]

I have an MSI K7N2 delta two platinum. I have 3 sticks of 512 crucial memory in banks 1, 2, and 3. It runs in dual channel DDR mode. Your board is set up exactly the same as mine.

RTFM - it will tell you. If you only have 2 sticks, then use banks 1 and 3.