Dual Channeling question

[teb468]

ok, so i presently have a stick of 512mb in my comp right now and i'm tryign to decide how to upgrade. so ehre are a few questions:

1) will there be any bad performance issues with having 1.5g of ram with a gig of it dual channeled? (3 x 512's)

2) if i was going to get the dual sticks as an upgrade, i saw like Corsair value stuff for like > 130 bucks i think, could be wrong, but is that good stuff or no?

 

[CrucialLabs]

You will only be running in dual channel mode if you have 2 modules with all the same characteristics. Some of the guys say you can install a pair of modules in the system first and let it boot then install the third one to keep the dual channel but I am not sure that will work. You will not have any performance issues unless your board has any. Check out the Ballistix line at www.crucial.com/ballistix

Crucial Performance Lab

www.crucial.com
The Memory Experts(SM) at Crucial Technology is now on board to give you straight answers to your memory-related questions.
cpl@micron.com

 

[Crashman]

What you heard from CrucialLabs is mostly right, but it doesn't consider nVidia's nForce2's "dual channel" system, which is unlike Intel's, instead of making a 128-bit channel from 2 64 bit channels for increased bandwidth it employs 2 separate channels working on staggered timing for reduced latency. nVidia's solution has always had minimum impact on performance, you wouldn't loose that gain by using 3 512MB modules.

On the other hand if you're using anything other than the nForce2, dual channel gives you a 128-bit memory path, which only works if you use matched pairs.

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