Advantages of dual channel?

[MrBlu3]

Hey all, I'm new to these forums and I have a question. My friend will soon be upgrading from 4gb (2x2) of memory to 8gb (2x4) I currently have 4gb (2x2) in dual channel and he is kindly offering me his old 4gb kit. What I am wondering is, will my computer support having 8gb in the form of 4x2, and how much of a performance loss would it be to having dual channel 8gb? (If any, I'm unsure exactly what dual channel really means). Thanks!

Matt

P.S - Specs you might need to know:

RAM: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600Mhz (Corsair XMS3 1.5v)
MB: MSI P67A GD53
CPU: i5 2500k
OS: Windows 7 x64

 

[Guest]

you will see a great difference in going from 4GBs to 8GBs; the windows swap file won't be used, depending on what you had been doing, and increase the speed overall.

 

[MrBlu3]

Thanks for the reply. Just wondering though, would it matter that it is 4 x 2gb instead of 2 x 4gb?

 

[Guest]

a 4x2gb can be "stressful" (both for the mobo and you :lol: ) when trying to overclock it.

 

[MrBlu3]

I don't think I'll be overclocking the RAM really. Would it affect overclocking the CPU much though? I'm currently running @ 4.5 Ghz. Would I need to change anything?

 

[abdussamad]

4x2GB will also run in dual channel. That is two pairs of sticks running in dual channel.

 

[MrBlu3]

Ah, I didn't realise thanks. I'm guessing that would mean there wouldn't be any difference with 2 x 4GB then.

 

[Guest]

I don't think I'll be overclocking the RAM really. Would it affect overclocking the CPU much though? I'm currently running @ 4.5 Ghz. Would I need to change anything?

no. you'll be fine.