Mr. Hahn Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 I'm making a new computer and ordered 1 GB (2 x 512) of dual channel ram. I'm wondering if I will be able to use my existing two sticks of ram in two dimms and still have dual channel "activated" on the other two. In other words, can I have dual channel on one pair of dimms and regular memory on the other pair without compromising the dual channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 ummm doubt it.. I am not exactly sure what you want to do.. motherboard information would be helpful.. I do know that you can run 4 sticks in dual channel mode... assuming that they are all matched... Otherwise it would just be the normal way.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hahn Posted March 5, 2005 Author CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 Alright, clarification: In this computer (not the new one I'm making), there are two sticks of memory. One is 256, the other 512, both of which are not dual channel. For my new computer, I ordered 1GB (2 x 512) of dual channel ram. The new motherboard I'm getting, the Abit AV8, has four memory dimms. I'm wondering if putting the old 256 and 512 sticks in the two free dimms in the new computer would stop the dual channel ram I will have in there from being dual channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xs1 Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 Doubt it'll even boot up... :-s 1 being dual 1 being single, it wont read at all methinks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 the answer is to your setup would be no but you could do this... You can do this according to the Abit manual.. http://file.abit.com.tw/pub/download/manual/english/av8.pdf This will work as long as: Slots 1 and 2, 3 and 4 have to be exactly the same.. so 1 and 2 could be the 256mb and 3 and 4 could be the 512mb I reference this on page 12 of the manual.. The motherboard itself will support up to 4 gigs running dual channel on all 4 slots.. So your config would run at 1.5 gigs.. which is awesome! that should be enough ram for just about anything.. However, you need to make sure that the 256's are matched.. otherwise I am not sure that it will boot.. Let us know how it goes! Also i think they need to be the same speed.. ddr400/333/200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netmasta Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 For the computer to work each stick of memory has to be the same type e.g.: speed, ECC etc. otherwise the computer might not boot up, or you will experience crashes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimmer Posted March 5, 2005 CID Share Posted March 5, 2005 that is not true on that motherboard.. each stick has to be pair with another.. so you could run dual channel with 2 matched 256mb sticks and 2 512 sticks.. as long as they are the same speed and put in the right slots.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Hahn Posted March 12, 2005 Author CID Share Posted March 12, 2005 Alright, I got the parts in on this last Wednesday and built it the same day. Everything started up nicely, and everything seemed to be going fine. However, I ended up getting numerous (I know 20+ at least) error messages which said it was unable to copy certain files and asked whether I wanted it to retry or skip those files. Needless to say, with all of those files missing that couldn't be copied over, the rest of the installation wasn't able to take place. I've also gotten several "blue screens of death". I looked up what this could be on a friends computer, and I found a case with these EXACT same symptoms pointing toward memory problems. To troubleshoot, I tried each of the two 512 sticks (1GB total) by themself in each dimm. With one of the sticks, I don't get any video whatsoever and an almost immediate crash of the computer at startup in all 4 dimms. The other stick only seems to allow my system to run in dimm 3. I guess I got lucky the first time I put it together and put that one in dimm 3 and the other in 4. However, I still have the same problems with the Windows installation and the "BSoD". I found a couple boot disk memory testing programs that I will use to test whether my memory is good or not when I have access to another computer that has a floppy drive. (Yes, this one doesn't have a floppy drive for some bizarre reason.) The motherboard is an Abit AV8, as previously stated, and the memory is dual channel Corsair Value Select ram. It's basically two identical sticks of 512 packaged together. What do you guys think it is. Is the motherboard bad? Do I need to not be a cheap ass and buy higher quality memory? Something else? I thought it might be a BIOS issue, but I'm not able to flash a new version because I can't get to DOS. If you would like a full list of system parts, let me know, and I'll get one posted. I'll let you guys know the results of the memory tests tomorrow. Any ideas are welcome and appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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