Mixing memery sizes

Lee H

Hi

I have just been given a 1Gig memory stick for my PC in work, (Christmas come early) i already had 2 X 256 and 1 X 512, mobo has 4 banks.

I could have all these sticks in my mobo but i dont know what effects it is having. What i have done is swapped 2 of the 256's with my colleague for a 512, so i have on one side the 2 X 512 and on the other side the 1Gig. This i beleive is giving me dual channel but i dont know what the speed differnece is from one combination to the next.

Does anyone have any info

Lee H

garv221

Your board has to have dual channel for it to work and the RAM has to be the same size and speed. The speed should be on a sticker on the RAM chip. Anything else defeats the purpose.

Lee H

the memory is all the same brand and all the same speed only different sizes, i have 4 bank and they are split in half with a bit of a gap, like i said earlier i have 2 X 512 on one side and 1 X Gig on other and because i know my mobo supports dual channel thats the only reason i have done this

will the performance of this be greatly different to me using 2 X 256, 1 X 512 and 1 X 1Gig, thus not utilizing dual channel

Danman32

You'd have to read your user's manual on the MOBO. Some have the 2 channels divided by that gap you talk about, so to take advantage of the dual channel, you have to have equal ram on each side. I don't think having one stick of 1G paired up with 2x 512s on the other channel will cut it.

RussS

Probably the best way to use it would be to have the 512's in the #1 slot in each bank and then the 1G inm the second slot of the first channel.