Danno
16-04-2007, 10:35 AM
Please take note of the following information when ordering additional RAM to if you are using Mainboards based on Intel Chipsets.
Due to limitations and designs of the Intel Dual Channel RAM Controller please follow this advice to avoid errors and future system problems.
Intel based mainboards mainly come with either 2 or 4 Ram slots. Because Intel chipsets prefer matched pair setup for Dual channel setup, BIOS support is optimized for the following configurations.
2 Slot Board – 1 Slot ( Single Channel Mode ) or 2 Slot ( Dual Channel Mode using equal size sticks ) This means that using two different size sticks of ram in each slot is not valid and in most cases will fail. Therefore please make sure that if you have 1 stick already and wish to upgrade that you buy another stick of same size and same speed.
4 Slot Board – 1 Slot ( Single Channel Mode ) / 2 Slot ( Dual Channel Mode Using equal size sticks – as per description above ) or 4 slots ( Dual Channel mode using equal size sticks in each pair of slots ) So for example in one pair of slots you could have 2 1gb sticks and then in the other pair of slots you could have 2 x 512mb sticks. Because each channel is matched this will work fine. In Intel 4 slot boards using just 3 slots will also cause problems as the Chipset does not see this as valid configuration. So if you have 2 sticks in your system already and wanted to add some more you need to do it using another 2 sticks to keep system in Dual channel rather than just adding 1 stick.
Due to limitations and designs of the Intel Dual Channel RAM Controller please follow this advice to avoid errors and future system problems.
Intel based mainboards mainly come with either 2 or 4 Ram slots. Because Intel chipsets prefer matched pair setup for Dual channel setup, BIOS support is optimized for the following configurations.
2 Slot Board – 1 Slot ( Single Channel Mode ) or 2 Slot ( Dual Channel Mode using equal size sticks ) This means that using two different size sticks of ram in each slot is not valid and in most cases will fail. Therefore please make sure that if you have 1 stick already and wish to upgrade that you buy another stick of same size and same speed.
4 Slot Board – 1 Slot ( Single Channel Mode ) / 2 Slot ( Dual Channel Mode Using equal size sticks – as per description above ) or 4 slots ( Dual Channel mode using equal size sticks in each pair of slots ) So for example in one pair of slots you could have 2 1gb sticks and then in the other pair of slots you could have 2 x 512mb sticks. Because each channel is matched this will work fine. In Intel 4 slot boards using just 3 slots will also cause problems as the Chipset does not see this as valid configuration. So if you have 2 sticks in your system already and wanted to add some more you need to do it using another 2 sticks to keep system in Dual channel rather than just adding 1 stick.