Whats dual channel and triple and timing

[surda]

hello

im kinda new to this, and i wanna know whats dual channel and triple channel, whats the difference between them and how do gain performance by doing them, and how do u even do them .

also if the cpu bus speed is lower than the ram bus speed, how would that effect the bus speed of the ram?

edit one more question

whats this timing thing 6-6-6 18 7-7-7 21 is it better when having lower timing or higher? and how does that effect the performance of the ram or the whole computer in general.

i know thats alot of questions lol, but this is the best website to ask these questions since there is alot of people who are experts in computers and stuff.

thanks in advance.

 

[huron]

People don't mind answering questions, but have you tried to google any of this yet, or have you read any of the new build guides?

howstuffworks.com has a good overview explanation of the RAM timings, and you can even get a decent explanation from wikipedia.

Lower timings are better, but you have to take into account that timings for DDR2 and DDR3 differ when it comes to real world performance.

 

[surda]

i did search about dual and triple, but not sure if its right.

so here.

dual channel, lets say ddr2 ram 800 mhz, its not 800 mhz, its actually 400 x2 thats dual channel.

as for triple channel which supports high bus speeds for ddr3, lets say 1800 mhz, its 600 x 3.

i read that you can get these bus speeds as long as your motherboard supports them, if not then it will be unstable.

about the timing lower is better, why because 6-6-6 takes less time to response than 7-7-7 and by that give more performance because its faster.

now im not 60% sure if any of the above is true, thats why i asked these questions over here, so can someone confirm and if there is anything wrong please correct me.

thanks.

 

[MaDMagik]

400mhz x 2 = (double data rate - two bits of data moved in every clock cycle instead of one) ddr 800, same applies to ddr3. Its not dual channel

Dual channel - ability for the memory controller to access two ram modules at the same time, in theory doubling the bandwidth(very simplified explanation)

Tripple channel - as above but three modules at a time(even more simplified explanation)

Speed vs. timings - http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=160

 

[surda]

so thats why it shows as 800 on the box, but inside when you use cpu-z it shows 400, it uses double data rate.

so your saying dual channel that lets say 2x2gb 800 mhz ddr2 the memory controller well accsess both at the same time

tripple channel these for the x58 motherboards right? to do this u must have 3 sets of ram? and can do these x58 motherboards support dual channel or they only do triple channel

thanks alot for your help.

 

[MaDMagik]

Yes, DRAM frequency of 400Mhz in CPUZ is DDR 800.

Dual channel was apparently invented in the "old times" to go around problem of slow FSB(bus on which cpu communicates with memory, among others) causing a bottleneck, I dont think is really that important these days but thats just my guess.

Yes, you need 3 or 6 ram modules for tripple channel. From what I read dual channel mode can still be used on a tripple channel mobo but Im not sure if its standard or optional, as I never dug the subject really.