Still Confused About RAM

S

Stoic Sentinel

New Member
Alright, so what's the deal with triple/dual channel (besides the speed)? I want to know if you can only do 6GB in dual channel with 2x2 and 1x2 = 6GB... But you can go like 8GB with 4 slots in triple channel? RAM is confusing as hell...
 
dual channel works best in pairs like you look at the RAM slots and theres 4 slots but in two different colours, you put the RAM pairs in the same colour and its faster as its dual channel. triple channel is the same thing but in groups of three and processors such as the I7 need triple channel :D. 6gb in dual channel would be 3 sets of 2 sticks, you cant do 8gb in triple as 3 doesnt go into 8 perfectly you ould do 2 sets of 3 sticks for 6gb in triple channel?
 
Turbo10 said:
dual channel works best in pairs like you look at the RAM slots and theres 4 slots but in two different colours, you put the RAM pairs in the same colour and its faster as its dual channel. triple channel is the same thing but in groups of three and processors such as the I7 need triple channel :D. 6gb in dual channel would be 3 sets of 2 sticks, you cant do 8gb in triple as 3 doesnt go into 8 perfectly you ould do 2 sets of 3 sticks for 6gb in triple channel?
Click to expand...

So for dual channel, are you saying that I can do 2x4?! (2GBx2GB, then get another set), unless I understood you wrong. Triple channel: can you get 3 sets of 3 sticks and get 9GB? I'm all confused. Perhaps you could iron out some confusion? :D
 
dual channel runs in pairs of matching ram

(motherboards with 4x ddr2 slots)
4sticks of 1gig = 4gig
4sticks of 2gig = 8gig

tripple channel runs in 3's

(motherboards with 6x ddr3 slots)
6sticks of 1gig = 6gig
6sticks of 2gig = 12gig

some dual channel motherboards might only have 2 slots for ram and some tripple channel motherboards might only have 3 instead of 6!!!

for best results the ram must be matching....

make, model, voltage etc
 
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funkysnair said:
dual channel runs in pairs of matching ram

(motherboards with 4x ddr2 slots)
4sticks of 1gig = 4gig
4sticks of 2gig = 8gig

tripple channel runs in 3's

(motherboards with 6x ddr3 slots)
6sticks of 1gig = 6gig
6sticks of 2gig = 12gig

some dual channel motherboards might only have 2 slots for ram and some tripple channel motherboards might only have 3 instead of 6!!!

for best results the ram must be matching....

make, model, voltage etc
Click to expand...

Thanks, that makes sense. I already have 4GB and not planning to upgrade to 8GB unless I have to, but it's always good to know :D So if I buy two sets of this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...276&cm_re=ripjaws_1333-_-20-231-276-_-Product it would still be dual channel as long as they're in the right spots?
 
if you buy 2 sets of taht ram it would give you 4x 2gig "8 gig in total" which is overkill really unless you use some pritty ram intensive software and 64bit windows operating system

i am sure your motherboard will only have 4 slots so it would run in dual channel as all the ram would be the same!

the easy way to remeber what you need for your motherboard to run in dual channel is all ram must be matching and if you are using only 2 ram slots out of the 4 (4gig using 2 gig sticks) you must use the correct slots!

for dual channel using 2 ram sticks they usally have the ram slots on your motherbaord colour coded

for example 1st slot blue 2nd slot white 3rd slot blue 4th slot white

(dual channel with 2x2gig you would stick one 2gig in 1st slot "blue" and second stick in 3rd slot "blue" that would enable dual channel)
 
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funkysnair said:
if you buy 2 sets of taht ram it would give you 4x 2gig "8 gig in total" which is overkill really unless you use some pritty ram intensive software and 64bit windows operating system

i am sure your motherboard will only have 4 slots so it would run in dual channel as all the ram would be the same!

the easy way to remeber what you need for your motherboard to run in dual channel is all ram must be matching and if you are using only 2 ram slots out of the 4 (4gig using 2 gig sticks) you must use the correct slots!

for dual channel using 2 ram sticks they usally have the ram slots on your motherbaord colour coded

for example 1st slot blue 2nd slot white 3rd slot blue 4th slot white

(dual channel with 2x2gig you would stick one 2gig in 1st slot "blue" and second stick in 3rd slot "blue" that would enable dual channel)
Click to expand...

Aight, thanks. I wasn't really thinking of buying 8GB RAM, I was just giving an example :D
 
funkysnair said:
dual channel runs in pairs of matching ram

(motherboards with 4x ddr2 slots)
4sticks of 1gig = 4gig
4sticks of 2gig = 8gig

tripple channel runs in 3's

(motherboards with 6x ddr3 slots)
6sticks of 1gig = 6gig
6sticks of 2gig = 12gig

some dual channel motherboards might only have 2 slots for ram and some tripple channel motherboards might only have 3 instead of 6!!!

for best results the ram must be matching....

make, model, voltage etc
Click to expand...

This is what my brother's PC is made of. Monstrous!:D
 
My fellow computer forum members gave good examples but what they forgot to add is that DDR3 comes in triple channel and dual channel. That probably just confused you even more. The i7 920 is the only CPU's that can use triple channel DDR3. The Phenom II and the i5 and i7 8** use dual channel DDR3.
 
Fatback said:
My fellow computer forum members gave good examples but what they forgot to add is that DDR3 comes in triple channel and dual channel. That probably just confused you even more. The i7 920 is the only CPU's that can use triple channel DDR3. The Phenom II and the i5 and i7 8** use dual channel DDR3.
Click to expand...

Oh, I knew THAT much. In fact, I'm running DDR3 in dual channel right now, lol.
 
ok going on what fatback said. ddr2 and ddr3 are different generations of ddr (double data rate) ram. the way dual channel and tripple ram work is kinda like the timing on a car engine. the ram bounces data off each other so in dual channel data bounces between two sticks of ram while in tripple channel it bounces between three.
 
newguy said:
ok going on what fatback said. ddr2 and ddr3 are different generations of ddr (double data rate) ram. the way dual channel and tripple ram work is kinda like the timing on a car engine. the ram bounces data off each other so in dual channel data bounces between two sticks of ram while in tripple channel it bounces between three.
Click to expand...

Hum, no. Triple channel works the same, just add one.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/133/1


Turbo10 said:
DDR3 hence why nowdays most DDR3 RAM is sold in packs of three?
Click to expand...

Seems like alot of DDR3 sold in pairs to me.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=
 
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