Wednesday, December 14, 2016

memory - '4 x DIMM' Confusion


I currently have an ASUS Maximus Formula with 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 RAM and Q9400 running @3.6 GHz.


I am quite happy with CPU performance and I want to upgrade my graphics card and RAM as 4GB is not really enough for today's applications/ games. The problem is that on the specification of the motherboard it states '4 x DIMM, Max 8GB' and then it goes on to say 'Dual Channel memory architecture'. On the actual motherboard it is clear that there are 4 RAM slots, but I am just sceptical as to what it means by 'Dual Channel memory architecture' on the specification.


The question is, if I bought exactly the same model of RAM (two more 2GB sticks) would my motherboard actually support it? Also, my current RAM is overclocked @450 MHz, and if I started using quad channel configuration (4x2GB) instead of dual configuration (2x2GB) would that affect the overlooking at all?


Answer



Dual channel memory architecture deals with how the memory communicates with the memory controller. The dual-channel architecture expands the number of data wires available in the memory data bus from 64 to 128. This helps speed things up a bit. It doesn't have anything to do with how many sticks the board can hold.


The configuration you have is correct, and your board can support 4, 2GB sticks that are DDR2 1200*/1066/800/667 MHz.


Also, what graphics card are you looking to get?


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