How many RAM sticks are used in a Dual channel system

Burkey666

Reputable
Aug 18, 2014
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4,510
Have a Alienware Aurora r3 system. Bought new Ram and want to know if i bought the wrong number of sticks. Says its dual channel and was told i only need to sticks. System has 4 sticks currently installed.

Upgrading to from 8 Gb to 16 Gb, but only bought 2 sticks of 8 Gb. Will i have to play around with which slots i install the 2 sticks or should I return and get 4 sticks of 4Gb each
 
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Deleted member 217926

Guest
You need matching sticks in the same channel. Each channel will be color coded. So you may have 2 brown slots and 2 red slots. You want to match each channel with an identical stick. So you could have 2 x 4GB sticks in the red slots and 2 x 8GB sticks in the brown slots and it would still run in dual channel mode. As would all 4 sticks being identical.

The gain from dual channel is only in the 4-7% range so it's not a huge deal but it is better to take advantage of it.