Can any one tell me about the differences between "dual channel" and single ram?

webe3 · 07-18-2003, 06:35 PM

OK, this is what I am wanting to know...... if I get a ASUS A7N8X Deluxe nforce 2 motherboard that uses dual channel memory, will there be THAT much difference between buying "dual channel" RAM for it (which is SUPPOSED to be optomized for it ) OR just get TWO STICKS of RAM as long as they are IDENTICAL (same brand , size, etc.) and use those two in the motherboard? I am wondering this because I think I can get a better deal on two independant sticks of ram as opposed to buying a dual channel set!

iAvalance · 07-19-2003, 06:14 AM

The dual channel thing is mainly in the motherboard, you can compare it to striping RAID applied to your memory. The speed increment is made by the amount of data you can retrieve after the required access time. Since memory never has to 'seek' for data like your harddisk (it's truly random access) you just gain extra performance because the chunks of memory you can fetch are twice as big as using single RAM.

igalan · 07-21-2003, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by webe3
[..]just get TWO STICKS of RAM as long as they are IDENTICAL (same brand , size, etc.) and use those two in the motherboard?

This is all you need. 2 identical sticks, and place them in slot 1 & 3 or 2 & 3 to run in dual channel mode. You can buy those "dual channel optimized", but after all they are the same you'll buy separate...

First thing I would do with this m/b is upgrade to the latest BIOS (1004 up to v1.06 or 1005 for v2 mobo). If you have to change settings in the BIOS, then change one or two at the time, save them and then change some more. Don't use "Save & Reboot". This is to avoid the BIOS corruptions that happens sometimes on nForce2 boards (I never had it myself, but many people had to hot flash to recover after a BIOS corruption.) Oh, and it's a good idea to put some cooling on the southbridge; CoolerMaster sells chipset coolers that work fine

(specially if you want to do some overclocking).

A very good site for specific information about nForce mobos is nForcesrHQ

.

07-18-2003, 06:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
webe3 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 108	Can any one tell me about the differences between "dual channel" and single ram? OK, this is what I am wanting to know...... if I get a ASUS A7N8X Deluxe nforce 2 motherboard that uses dual channel memory, will there be THAT much difference between buying "dual channel" RAM for it (which is SUPPOSED to be optomized for it ) OR just get TWO STICKS of RAM as long as they are IDENTICAL (same brand , size, etc.) and use those two in the motherboard? I am wondering this because I think I can get a better deal on two independant sticks of ram as opposed to buying a dual channel set!

07-19-2003, 06:14 AM	#2 (permalink)
iAvalance Lost Forever Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Spilniks Posts: 276	The dual channel thing is mainly in the motherboard, you can compare it to striping RAID applied to your memory. The speed increment is made by the amount of data you can retrieve after the required access time. Since memory never has to 'seek' for data like your harddisk (it's truly random access) you just gain extra performance because the chunks of memory you can fetch are twice as big as using single RAM. __________________ "A computer program does what you told it to do, not what you want it to do" - Greer (English translation)

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