RAM Question - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

lunchbox · 10-08-2004, 09:38 PM

So I just put together an Asus a7n8x-x system for my friend thinking I knew very well what i was doing. I found out unfortunately after it arrived from newegg that this mobo doesn't support dual channel mode. I find this odd because the book for the mobo says it supports max 3GB of ddr 3200. My question is, can it support 3gigs and not be in dual channel mode? Right now he has two sticks of 128 in there because we got a pretty good deal from newegg on them so I figured dual channel would be worth it for a good price. and now my first impression after finding out it doesn't support dual channel is that its only going to be using the 128 of memory. Am I wrong about this? what's the differnece in dual channel and single channel? excuse me for being a noob. I searched the forums and it seems to me like no one has asked a question like this before, I could be wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mr Zen · 10-08-2004, 10:21 PM

Dual channel just means that the board will access both memory sticks at the same time.

And yes it can support 3 GB of memory in single channel. My Asus A7V8X in fact does that.

Did you buy dual channel memory? Or is it just the standard stuff?

Sorry just a little confused here... You arn't under the impression that dual channel means having two sticks of RAM in are you? Because if you buy two sticks of single channel memory you can put them in different slots...

Gotenks · 10-09-2004, 01:53 AM

In order for you to run RAM in dual channel, you need 2 seperate sticks. IIRC the -x series of a7n8x's only have 3 ram slots. While it's completely possible to fill in those 3 slots with 1gb sticks of memory, the higher cas latency's, along with the fact that I don't think you'll ever need more than 1.5gb of ram (unless your an avid video editor, or audio editor... even then you'd probably be on a mac), the price of *good* 1gb ram sticks are extreemly high. That really didnt answer your question, but just a basic answer from what I skimmed through.

As for being able to "run 3gigs and not be in dual channel mode", the answer is yes. Having 2x 128mb sticks of ram in his system will run at 256mb system memory, dual channel works very similiar to Raid-0 on a HDD, in simple terms, it uses the memory of both sticks as if it is one, this cuts off on some loading time, and retrieving chunks of cache from dual channel sticks can result in a faster manner.

Quote:

Dual channel memory works just like RAID on a HDD. Basically the two memory controllers stripe the data accross/between both sticks of RAM to allow faster access. Functionally in single channel memory the one memory controller just assigns address to the RAM and realistaically sees one 'chunk' of RAM being the sum of all the sticks. In dual channel each controller address its stick of RAM independently and allows each stick to be access simultaniously.

lunchbox · 10-09-2004, 05:21 AM

Quote:

Previously Posted by Mr. Zen

Did you buy dual channel memory? Or is it just the standard stuff?

I bought a dual channel kid of Kingston ValueRam. I was just wondering what the big difference was but between you and Gotenks the answer is just that dual channel is a little faster if you want to run things that require a lot of memory dual channel would be teh better way to go. I'm only going to be usin the PC for you're normal functions, word processing, some gaming, media center etc.

Thanks for the help guys.

Simpatico · 10-10-2004, 01:06 PM

I also have an a7n8x dlx m/b and it does indeed support the dual channel memory mode. The dual channel mode works with 2 or 3 sticks of memory but only inserted into certain slots if you are using 2 sticks. The following is quoted from my Asus A7N8X m/b manual under "Memory Configurations"-
NOTE: To enhance system performance, utilize dual channel feature when installing additional DIMMs. You may install the DIMMs in the following sequence: Sockets 1 & 3, Sockets 2 & 3 or Sockets 1, 2 & 3.

Since my OS is 98SE, I can only use 512Mb of RAM. I have 2 sticks of Corsair 256Mb in slots 1 & 3 and have had no problems at all since I built my 'puter about a year ago.

10-08-2004, 09:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
lunchbox Thank God hockey is back Location: Deeeeeetroit	RAM Question So I just put together an Asus a7n8x-x system for my friend thinking I knew very well what i was doing. I found out unfortunately after it arrived from newegg that this mobo doesn't support dual channel mode. I find this odd because the book for the mobo says it supports max 3GB of ddr 3200. My question is, can it support 3gigs and not be in dual channel mode? Right now he has two sticks of 128 in there because we got a pretty good deal from newegg on them so I figured dual channel would be worth it for a good price. and now my first impression after finding out it doesn't support dual channel is that its only going to be using the 128 of memory. Am I wrong about this? what's the differnece in dual channel and single channel? excuse me for being a noob. I searched the forums and it seems to me like no one has asked a question like this before, I could be wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated.

10-08-2004, 10:21 PM	#2 (permalink)
Mr Zen Upright Location: Alberta, Canada	Dual channel just means that the board will access both memory sticks at the same time. And yes it can support 3 GB of memory in single channel. My Asus A7V8X in fact does that. Did you buy dual channel memory? Or is it just the standard stuff? Sorry just a little confused here... You arn't under the impression that dual channel means having two sticks of RAM in are you? Because if you buy two sticks of single channel memory you can put them in different slots...

10-10-2004, 01:06 PM	#5 (permalink)
Simpatico Upright	I also have an a7n8x dlx m/b and it does indeed support the dual channel memory mode. The dual channel mode works with 2 or 3 sticks of memory but only inserted into certain slots if you are using 2 sticks. The following is quoted from my Asus A7N8X m/b manual under "Memory Configurations"- NOTE: To enhance system performance, utilize dual channel feature when installing additional DIMMs. You may install the DIMMs in the following sequence: Sockets 1 & 3, Sockets 2 & 3 or Sockets 1, 2 & 3. Since my OS is 98SE, I can only use 512Mb of RAM. I have 2 sticks of Corsair 256Mb in slots 1 & 3 and have had no problems at all since I built my 'puter about a year ago.