[jbegley86]

I am wanting to upgrade my RAM and im unsure what i should be buying. I have been told to get PC 3200 DDR, but the only ones i can find are dual channel, and my pc does not support dual channel. Does this mean that these dual channel sticks would just work as single channel on my pc? or not work at all? Help would be much appreciated. Thanks

[eyeCpc]

First of all when deciding on what memory to buy you first need to know what the board supports. Many older Intel and AMD boards alike would only run single sided dimms.

Those are still DDR memory only with only one side of the dimm having small IC chips on it. Most memory now available is strictly dual sided dimms for the last DDR as well as DDR2 and now DDR3 memory available.

The best way to enable the dual channel mode on any board is to run pairs of idential type and size dimms. Even single sided dimms would run in the dual channel if that is what the board calls for.

[jbegley86]

Thanks. I have been told to get PC2300 DDR for my pc, but its only the dual channel i can find. My pc does not support that, so i would need to try and find single sided ones instead?

[vernong1992]

it doesn't matter if it is.. its gonna be disabled.. that Dual-Channel thing means its supported..

[eyeCpc]

The manual that came with the board or a download from the support site will have the installing memory section there that will explain how to install the memory in order to enable the dual channel mode. On many older boards with 3 not 4 dimm slots you could only run two dimms or be see the forced single mode.

On newer models the manual will show whether that is the case when all slots are populated with dimms. Some Intel boardscan have all slots filled and still see the dual channel mode.

[brinks]

Dual channel sticks would just work as single channel on your pc.

[eyeCpc]

That's Double Data Rate not the dual cnannel or single channel mode a board is set to. The concept behind the dual channel mode is to open up a second channel for processing data faster.

When you run a large program anything running in the background gets pushed onto the secondary freeing up resources. One exampe would be opening a second lane on a highway when the traffic starts to bog down on the first. It frees up any bottle necks.