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Dual channel RAM

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Enigmatic_Oddity
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19 Dec 2007, 7:50 am

I am thinking of buying another 1gb of ram for my computer. I currently already have 1gb installed. If I do this, will I take advantage of dual-channelling? Or do I need to make sure I get ram that is similar to the other one? I know that the one I have is DDR2. Do I have to get the same brand of RAM with a similar clockspeed, etc?

Also my motherboard is ABIT IP-95. I'm not sure if it even supports dual channelling.



UncleBeer
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19 Dec 2007, 8:51 am

Easist way to do this: go here http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/index.aspx , tick the box, click "Start my Scan" (you may have to approve ActiveX), and the web page will tell exactly what kind of memory you already have, and what kind you need.



Imperceptus
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19 Dec 2007, 9:41 am

Most times, dual channel ram slots are color coded in pairs. Hope this helps.


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Bopkasen
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19 Dec 2007, 10:59 am

Enigmatic_Oddity wrote:
I am thinking of buying another 1gb of ram for my computer. I currently already have 1gb installed. If I do this, will I take advantage of dual-channelling? Or do I need to make sure I get ram that is similar to the other one? I know that the one I have is DDR2. Do I have to get the same brand of RAM with a similar clockspeed, etc?

Also my motherboard is ABIT IP-95. I'm not sure if it even supports dual channelling.



Your motherboard support DDR2 which is like dual channeling but they are not the same.

http://www.nextag.com/531785267p/prices-html

You would need to get DDR2 533 which is also known as PC2-4200.

Depending on the popular brand name like Samsung, Consair, Kingston, etc.

You can get the low density and ECC kind if you search through it. Those of the two type will aids your computer.

http://www.pricewatch.com/system_memory ... 00_1gb.htm

A decent 1GB system memory would cost you $25 and up.



Enigmatic_Oddity
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19 Dec 2007, 11:40 pm

Quote:
* Maximum Memory Capacity: 4194304 MB
* Currently Installed Memory: 1024 MB
* Available Memory Slots: 1
* Number of Banks: 2
* Dual Channel Support: N.A.
* CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel
* CPU Family: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz Model 15, Stepping 13
* CPU Speed: 2194 MHz


Thanks for the help. Ok so my motherboard doesn't support dual channelling, so that's out.

Funny thing I noticed though. My currently installed RAM is DDR PC2-5300 or DDR2-667 which apparently my motherboard doesn't even support. It's supposed to support only DDR2 533 or DDR 400.

Anyway, if I get more RAM, should I aim to make it match the currently installed RAM anyway (ie. brand, clock speed, etc?)

Bopkasen: Could you explain the benefits of ECC and low density RAM?