Dual Channel RAM, Auto Set-up ???

[Dave_07]

Hey all

Quick question for ya all. I'm thinking of toping up my system's ram with some dual channel Corsair DDR SDRAM TwinX XMS3200 400Mhz (2,3,3,6) 2x 1Gb Sticks, Unbuffered & Non-ECC (DIMM 184-PIN). But I was just wondering, with dual channel, matched sticks, if it's ok to just pop them into the mobo, and they will automatically set them selves up in dual channel ? or do you have to do some extra working in the bios or something ?

ps. The mobo is designed for dual channel stick's, and the slots the new stick's would be going into, would be the two remaining channel A & channel B slots, my mobo has the slots in different colours so it's easy.

Cheers, Dave.

[streetster]

from what i remember when i had dual channel on my old socket A motherboard, aslong as the ram was in the right slots it just came up saying 'dual channel enabled' on the bios boot screen

[deeloughran]

Don't be too sure i stuck a set of TCCD ram in my old mobo a few weeks back and it blew it! Make sure you wipe the CMOS i think it is first before inserting the new, faster ram!

[unreal]

Yeah on my Asus board, dual-channel is automatically enabled if you set up the RAM correctly by putting it in the right slots on the motherboard

[Dave_07]

Reply to deeloughran,

What difference would wiping the CMOS make ?

[herulach]

My money would be on mismatched voltages, TCCD generally like much lower voltage than most ram. Your best bet is probably just to pull whats in there out, although unless its overclocked/youve been playing with voltages you wont have a problem, just bung it in. The only problem being if youre buying twinx, it will run at the speed of the current (probably slower) ram

[Dave_07]

1) What's TCCD stand for again ?

2) The voltage of the current ram is 2.50v so would that voltage level conflict with the voltage of the new ram ? (New ram > Corsair DDR SDRAM TwinX XMS3200 400Mhz (2,3,3,6) 2x 1Gb Sticks, Unbuffered & Non-ECC DIMM 184-PIN, unfortunately i don't know what the voltage of the new ram is).

3) Also, yeah, herulach, your right, the new ram has faster timings than the old ram, so I guess the question is: Which is better - 2.5Gb @ 2,4,4,6 timings or just 2Gb @ 2,3,3,6 timings ?

Edit - Oh yeah, if I pull out the old ram and replace it with the new stuff, will the new ram automatically receive the correct voltage ?

[herulach]

going from 2 to 2.5gb would be almost zero performance difference i would hav ethought, just pull the old stuff out. TCCD is a particular type of ram samsung used to make, thats good at low timings, but not high speed

[Dave_07]

And what about the voltage's ? will the computer boot up with the old ram's voltage level (2.50v) or will the voltage level automatically set it's self for the new ram on startup ???

ps, you need to make any preparations for installing new ram, when it's replacing old stuff ?

[herulach]

it should set its self from whats called the spd, so you shouldnt have any trouble. Unless your bios is heavily customised you may as well reset it before installing it, but other than that no.

[Dave_07]

Oh yeah, very important. I forgot to ask, how do you go about clearing the new ram of any static that may have accumulated in it ???

And is the whole resting the bios step, a must do ? cause last time i did that problems occurred.

[Dave_07]

Bump

[Agent]

Provided they are in the right slots its in Dual DDR mode.
You dont need to do anything in the BIOS.

[Agent]

Oh yeah, very important. I forgot to ask, how do you go about clearing the new ram of any static that may have accumulated in it ???

Just plug it into your mobo : Your motherboard will be grounded and dissipate any static it has.
Unless you’ve been rubbing it on a carpet for a while though, and have handled it correctly, you have nothing to worry about.

[Dave_07]

Cheers Agent, and everyone else for the help. I'll also touch the case first aswell, to ground myself, befor i even touch the ram, and the sticks apparently have heat-spreaders on them anyway (I hope).

Just a matter of waiting till i get the ram now (2 weeks), I can't wait Hopefully i'll see a marked improvement going form a low 512Mb @ 2,4,4,6 to a whopping 2Gb @ 2,3,3,6. Also i'll hopefully be able to play B&W2:BOTG's without always crashing to the desktop.

Dave.

[Dave_07]

Hey all again,

Well on the night before i buy this new ram : Corsair DDR SDRAM (400Mhz) Twinx 2x1GB matched XMS3200 / Model No#: TWINX2048-3200C2PT Platinum (2,3,3,6) , Unbuffered & Non-ECC (DIMM 184-PIN) I happened upon some User Reviews which worried me. Basically they say that this ram doesn't always automatically run at the advertised timings of 2,3,3,6 and that it will most likely require a voltage change (to 2.75) to get 2 3 3 6 speeds, and to also manually change the timings to 2,3,3,6 aswell. This worried me because, 1) I thought that the ram would auto-set-up and 2) im not sure if my bios allows changing of the ddr power voltage...
But then in the same thread some other people say that it will run at 2,3,3,6 speeds by it's self.

So im guessing that if your motherboard can go up to 2.75v, that the ram will auto set to 2,3,3,6 timings. But the thing is, when reading my motherboard manual (Mobo: MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R) it says, and i quote "This mainboard provides 4 slots for 184-pin, 2.5V DDR DIMM with 8 memory banks" Does this mean that the voltage level can only go up to 2.5 volts ? If so then this ram is not going to run properly on my system is it ?

Dave.