Whats the Best Way to Arrange DDR in dual channel mobo?

chrisalviola

chrisalviola

New Member
My first memory was a DDR400 500Mb placed it on my board, it worked fine, then i have another DDR266 256Mb a month later, placed both on the board, the 500Mb was closer to the Processor, when i turn on the PC i got a blue screen on my WinXp with lots of message some of it says restart yourcomputer, when i restart my computer the WinXp boots and then restart automatically and never made it on the winxp desktop the next restart would then make windows operational, this process repeats every time i turn on my PC, I then change the arrangement of my DDR placed the 256Mb on the slot closer to the Processor and the 500Mb next to it, This arrangement made my PC ok.

i have read the boards manual and followed the prescribed arrangement, some times when you boot it does become unstable. My processor is just 1.8 Ghz P4 is my DDR clock speed too fast for this processor?

My board is the asus P4S800D-X
 
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PC eye

banned
The problem you are seeing there besides having installed the "512" not "500"mb dimm in other then the first slot when mixing different sized dimms may have to do with the type of memory if the 256mb dimm is faster or slower or a dual sided while the 512mb was the opposite.

The best way to run a dual channel configuration is with two identical size and type dimms. A mismatch of memory will cause a long list of problems to come up. If one dimm is bad that will cause problems too.
 
Rambo

Rambo

New Member
PC eye said:
The best way to run a dual channel configuration is with two identical size and type dimms. A mismatch of memory will cause a long list of problems to come up. If one dimm is bad that will cause problems too.
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Yep. Also, preferably, you would want the same brand, Cas Latency, Voltages, etc... If they do not operate at the same voltage you will have trouble because, one might work at 1.8v but if the other one requires 2.1 it ain't gonna boot ;)
 
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SirKenin

banned
You can not run different size DIMMs in dual channel, period. It also does not matter which slots the RAM are in if you are running in single channel usually. I have used all sorts of wierd configurations with success. I guess just play around with it until you find something that works, but do not attempt to run it in dual channel or you are going to run into all kinds of problems.
 
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PC eye

banned
Dual channel mode is set by the board's own detection of the installed memory for the most part when dimms are installed according to the instructions seen in the manual. With a mismatched pair on a four dimm slot board your best option is to put both in the first two or last two to be in the single channel configuration. The largest dimm would go in the first slot with the other in the second there. On a three slot board oops! better to run only the larger dimm. If one dimm is single sided while the other is dual sided one will certainly have to go.

I have three 1gb dimms here. But one is a single sided Corsair value ram while the other two are dual sided. I also have a pair of Corsar xms series 512mb dimms that I can't use with the pair of Kinston dual sided value ram 1gb dimms either. One of the most important things to have on a system is well matched memory when using more then one dimm. The ideal setup has memory pretested to work together. That's called a "matched pair". You can ask SirKenin on that as well. He's in the field.
 
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SirKenin

banned
PCEye, you have no idea what you are talking about, again.

You can use two sticks of any size you want or combination thereof in a three slot board no problem. All you have to do is consult the mobo manual for the proper installation of DS and SS memory.

It doesn't matter which slot the 512 and 256 go into, as long as they are installed in single channel mode, not dual channel. The 256 can just as easily go in first if the configuration allows for that arrangement of DS/SS memory. The size has bugger all to do with it.
 
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PC eye

banned
"Hi. I don't care. Thanks." sounds better on that last one! On a three slot board with two dimms the 3rd slot is left empty on most boards to run in the single channel mode by populating the first two. :rolleyes: "Performance wise" as recommended often by "EXPERTS" in the field the larger of two dimms when sizes are mixed is placed in the number #1 dimm slot. And you would recommend otherwise? :confused: :eek: !!!
 
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SirKenin

banned
Can you show me how performance increases, because we already know you know squat about RAM and memory controllers. You have sufficiently proven that in other threads... So external links written by professionals with included tests are all that's going to suffice here.

Also, it does not matter the order of the DIMMs on a three slot board. Doesn't matter a damn.. But you're welcome to try and prove otherwise.

In both cases don't pull your usual shit and try and drag the conversation all over the place in a feeble attempt to hide the fact that you haven't a clue what you're talking about.
 
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PC eye

banned
Apparently you have never bothered to look inside the manual for a board to actually bother to read the section on memory. You are saying you can install multiple dimms in ANY configuration on a dual channel board WITHOUT enabling the dual channel mode? Go back to elementary school will you!
 
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SirKenin

banned
PC eye said:
Apparently you have never bothered to look inside the manual for a board to actually bother to read the section on memory. You are saying you can install multiple dimms in ANY configuration on a dual channel board WITHOUT enabling the dual channel mode? Go back to elementary school will you!
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Did I say that? No. Like I've told you several times before you need to learn to read the whole post and comprehend what it is saying. You did the same thing in the harddrive forum about IDE cables, babbling on about rounded cables or some stupid thing when that wasn't even close to what the guy was talking about. Needless to say it is very frustrating sometimes trying to converse with you.
 
StrangleHold

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
This is funny :D
That board has 2 blue slots and 2 black slots, put the 512 in the first blue slot and the 256 in the second blue slot, now there not going to run in dual channel, and running DDR400 and DDR266 togather they might not run togather, the timming could be so far off from each other the board might not find middle ground that they both can run at! Plus the speed, I have saw alot of DDR400 that would not back down to 266 and I am pretty sure the DDR266 is going to have a hard time runnung at 333 much less at 400!
 
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PC eye

banned
I have three different sets of DDR400 I can't run together here. One is a Corsair value single sided dimm, a pair of dual sided Corsair xms CMX512-3200 C2 performance dimms, and the installed pair of 1gb Kingston Value Ram dimms. I can imagine the problems with a miixup there.
 
chrisalviola

chrisalviola

New Member
Is it OK if I set on CMOS setup the manual speed of my RAM to 266 evn if I have a DDR400 512MB and DDR266 256MB? WHat about setting it to a higher speed? on boot my RAM speed keeps on apearing 233 Mhz?
 
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SirKenin

banned
You don't need to manually set the RAM. It will automatically run at the lower speeds. If you try and set it higher you will either get errors or the computer won't boot. You might get lucky though, but I doubt it.
 
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PC eye

banned
In most cases memory will only backclock down one notch. A DDR400 dimm would run at 333mhz, a DDR333 would run at 266mhz, and likewise. But you adjust the speed by lowering the memory clock on some boards while it would be seen as the memory timings on the older boards if that setting is available.

With OCing you would probably see a slight increase in voltage or the multiplier as the means of speeding up the memory a little bit at a time as well as the cpu speed. In order to perform this you back down on everything to gradually bring or more things up until you see a stall. Then you know the max limit you can go.
 
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PC eye

banned
The single sided dimm will have a row of small usually rectangular ic chips along one side of the dimm only while the dual sided lives upto the name there by having a row of ics on both sides. The single sided will seem like a minutature circuit board when first looked at and thinner then the dual sided.
 
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