6 sticks of dual channel memory?

[ddaydreams]

Hello, I was wondering if Asus or anyone else makes a Workstation MOBO that can run 6 sticks of 4mg dual channel memory. I was looking at an Saber tooth X58 and it seems that it can only support 4 Sticks of dual channel mem in slot 1 thru 4 and that 5 and 6 must be left empty. I don't want tripel channel mem.

Thanks
for any help

 

[rolli59]

Why not triple? Dual channel boards have either 2 or 4 slots!

 

[jsanthara]

What do you have against triple channel?

 

[jaquith]

I don't understand the issue with Tri Channel kits, but Dual Channel kits can work as shown below. If the RAM is DDR3-1333 or DDR3-1066 then you can get by with using (3) kits of 'Dual' Channel, and then it's best to manually set the DRAM Frequency and CAS Timings. IF you're lucky maybe even the same for DDR3-1600. The only guarantees are 'Tri' and 'Hexa' Channel kits.

Some i7-9XX on consumer MOBO's can even run 8GB/DIMM or 48GB -> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/298232-30-48gb-running-990x-1366-consumer

The i7 990X is built off the Xeon X5690

 

[geofelt]

Hello, I was wondering if Asus or anyone else makes a Workstation MOBO that can run 6 sticks of 4mg dual channel memory. I was looking at an Saber tooth X58 and it seems that it can only support 4 Sticks of dual channel mem in slot 1 thru 4 and that 5 and 6 must be left empty. I don't want tripel channel mem.

Thanks
for any help

Ram is not intrinsically single/dual/triple channel.
That comes from the chipset and the motherboard. If you have a X58 chipset and 6 ram slots, you can populate them with 1 to 6 sticks.
If you use one stick, you get single channel operation.
If you use two sticks, you get dual channel operation, assuming the sticks are the same capacity.
If you use three sticks, you get triple channel operation, again assuming the sticks are each the same capacity.
If you use 4 or more sticks, the Lowest capacity channel will operate in triple channel mode, and the excess over that will operate in single or dual channel mode.

It is a moot point, since nehalem memory controllers are largely insensitive to ram configurations.

 

[ddaydreams]

I don't understand the issue with Tri Channel kits, but Dual Channel kits can work as shown below. If the RAM is DDR3-1333 or DDR3-1066 then you can get by with using (3) kits of 'Dual' Channel, and then it's best to manually set the DRAM Frequency and CAS Timings. IF you're lucky maybe even the same for DDR3-1600. The only guarantees are 'Tri' and 'Hexa' Channel kits.

http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/DDR3_GA.jpg

Some i7-9XX on consumer MOBO's can even run 8GB/DIMM or 48GB -> http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/298232-30-48gb-running-990x-1366-consumer

The i7 990X is built off the Xeon X5690

Thanks for the help. Sorry about the late reply. Busy Week.

I have 6 matching sticks of 4gb DDR3 Dual Channel 1600 ram.

I saw the diagram you are showing before I posted my question and that's what prompted my question.

It shows slots 5 and 6 with no ram when using Dual Channel Mem. I thought that means you can't fill those slots with this ram without causing problems or that those last 2 slots may not be acknowledged with Dual Channel mem in them.. Am I assuming wrong? Geofetts answer indicates my assumption about the diagram was wrong.

I have nothing against triple channel
,but I have all this new matched Dual Channel which I would like to use. Rather than buying Triple channel.

 

[rolli59]

If they are all matching, stick them in and they should run in triple channel. It is not the ram that decides the channels it is the memory controller. Dual channel ram kit only means 2 or 4 identical ram modules same way as triple channel means 3 or 6 identical modules.

 

[ddaydreams]

If they are all matching, stick them in and they should run in triple channel. It is not the ram that decides the channels it is the memory controller. Dual channel ram kit only means 2 or 4 identical ram modules same way as triple channel means 3 or 6 identical modules.

Thanks Rollie

 

[jaquith]

Even IF they are all 'Matching' but not from Sets - there's NO Guarantees.

I can Guarantee e.g. 3 sets of 2X_GB, etc or 6 stick not to use XMP.
I can Guarantee e.g. Unequal Sized Channels kill Tri Channel
I can Guarantee e.g. Mix-Matching even RAM IC's (same Frequency, CAS, Voltage) will generate errors/problems.
I can Guarantee e.g. Frequency >DDR-1333 and faster the problems go up exponentially in unmatched sets.

RE: "I have 6 matching sticks of 4gb DDR3 Dual Channel 1600 ram is a really bad idea, the cut-off, now, for reliability placing together '6 sticks' is DDR3-1333. IF you start looking at 'Hexa Kits' you will quickly notice lack of Frequency/CAS choices. This is no accident, it all reliability related.

Bottom-Line, don't.

 

[ddaydreams]

Best answer selected by ddaydreams.