what is dual channel ram

[bucs11134654]

i have 512 mb or ram in my computer, and i was going to buy another 512, so i would have a gig, but do i need to buy dual channel if i have to sticks in a computer for them to work together

thanks

 

[stevty2889]

Well you would have to give us at least the basic info to know weather your motherboard even uses dual channel or not, but basicly dual channel is a property of the memory controler, not the memory itself. Just get a 512mb stick of what you have in there and it will work fine. Dual channel kits are nothing but a pair of the same ram that were tested on a dual channel motherboard and packaged together. It's best to have matching sticks for dual channel, but sometimes it will even work with differant brands as long as they have similar timings.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

No, if they're mismatched, they'll just run at the lower of the 2 RAM's speed. Dual-channel theoredically doubles bandwidth, allowing for RAM to run faster.
And, you can't buy "dual channel" RAM. Dual channel configuration is a CPU/motherboard feature.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
No, if they're mismatched, they'll just run at the lower of the 2 RAM's speed. Dual-channel theoredically doubles bandwidth, allowing for RAM to run faster.
And, you can't buy "dual channel" RAM. Dual channel configuration is a CPU/motherboard feature.

Come on you two dragons, let's try to get along now; quit breathing that fire !

 

[NiKeFiDO]

its somewhat important to match the brand/CAS latency etc of the two sticks as some ram/motherboard are finicky about dual channel.
anywho, give us the info on what kind of motherboard you have. (If its a dell you can look it up @ dell knowledge base)

 

[bucs11134654]

thanks, that answered my question