3 memory chips and dual channel?

[Felixmagician]

I'm a novice builder, so bear with me.

Can I install 3 memory chips and still achieve dual channel performance?
Or do I always have to install dimms in pairs?

For example, if I buy 3 x 2GB dimms can I get dual channel for 6 GB?

 

[chookman]

No you cant, they need to be paired.

If you are using a C2D though the high amount on cache on die negates alot of the need for dual channel so you shouldnt notice much of a performance drop.

You could alternatively look at a pair of 2gb and a pair of 1gb that will work in dual channel to give your your 6gb? Hope your using a 64bit OS with that...

 

[Felixmagician]

Ok, thanks.

I have a follow up question (not directly related but anyways):
Why does Intel announce the type of RAM their CPUs support? I thought this is entirely depended on the chipset, not CPU?
For example in the specs of C2D E8500, it is mentioned that the CPU supports DDR3.
I always thought that you can have even a Celeron processor and work with DDR3 as long as the chipset accepts it?