Installing Dual Channel RAM

[ninadrb]

Hello,
Recently i bought Corsair XMS3 4 GB (1 x 4 GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 DIMM. I already have 2Gb of Kingston 1333Mhz. Since my Current OS is 32 bit Windows 7 and it recognizes 3.25Gb only i removed my old RAM module and installed New one. But my Motherboard seems to have not identified it and couldnt get my PC turned on. When i installed both modules it worked and it does show ^ Gbs of RAM installed. What could be the reason that when I Installed a single module it didn't recognize but when installed both modules it did? Is it because of the Dual Channel Memory? My Motherboard is ASUS M4A77TD & Processor is AMD Phenom II X4 925.

 

[bull22]

Like you said, since you're running 32bit Windows will only be able to recognize up 4gb. It is possible that when you had the single DIMM installed that is was not seated properly. Dual channel only assists with data transfer and wouldn't affect your boot. Keep in mind that running dual channel with 2 different brands of sticks is not recommended. Also, 2 different frequency sticks will bring the higher one down to the lower clock unless you change their settings in the BIOS.

 

[k1114]

You can't have dual channel with different sized sticks. You can check in cpuz. Also 1600 would default to 1333 regardless since 1600 is an oc for his cpu.

 

[bull22]

You can't have dual channel with different sized sticks. You can check in cpuz. Also 1600 would default to 1333 regardless since 1600 is an oc for his cpu.

Even if they're the same brand/frequency? Yeah I noted that the frequency would be brought down to the lower clock, I guess my question is in the users case if they did have 2 sticks of the same size with 2 different frequencies, would that affect performance in the overclock?

 

[k1114]

Amd doesn't have flex mode so in this case, no. There is no telling if the slower stick could oc higher. It won't affect performance if it could oc because they are the same speed but keep in mind there is only 1 setting for all sticks, so the set speed, latency, voltage, etc., needs to work on them all. This also goes for mixing brands.

 

[ninadrb]

I found 6Gb installed RAM in the System details though, which means both sticks are working together, I am going to upgrade my OS to 64 bit so that i can make use of full Installation, however I still do not understand why installing the 4Gb stick alone did not work, it was seated properly in the slot as well, machine turned on but couldn't see anything on the Monitor, monitor light kept on blinking but nothing came up on the display.

 

[ColdFire2112]

I found 6Gb installed RAM in the System details though, which means both sticks are working together, I am going to upgrade my OS to 64 bit so that i can make use of full Installation, however I still do not understand why installing the 4Gb stick alone did not work, it was seated properly in the slot as well, machine turned on but couldn't see anything on the Monitor, monitor light kept on blinking but nothing came up on the display.

Often, motherboards will require that there be memory seated in particular slots in order to boot. It's possible that when you had the single stick in a slot that the board wasn't configured to boot from. You'd have to refer to your manual to validate this, but that or it simply not being seated all the way in the slot are my best guesses.

 

[Tradesman1]

It may not just have picked up the stick, sometimes when changing the sticks the BIOS gets lost and normally a CMOS reset will take care of that, especially if you had the previous sticks set up manually