Memory dual channel question

[jack]

Hi ther guys

A friend of mine is gonna upgrade his memory he currently has 1gb Dual channel (2x512mb)!
Now his gonna buy 2gb dual channel kit(2x1gb) and wants to know if he added it to the already installed memory it would be dual channel?

Im thinking no as he would need 4 1gb stick? or would he, im not sure thats why im asking

Next question if it does turn out that he cant add to the memory what would perform better? 2gb Dual channel or 3gb single channel??

thanks alot

[nvening]

Some motherboards have only one pair that work in dual channel, some have 2 pairs.
You will need to look at the manual.

As long as you have 4 slots, you can use two sticks in dual channel (like you do now) and then stick the other two sticks in the empty slots and it will work.
but they may not both work in dual channel (one pair should)

[jack]

the motherboard is a MSI NForce3 K8N Neo2 Plat if it helps?

[Xaar]

The MSI NForce3 K8N Neo2 allows upto four dimms in dual channel mode.

As for needing all 4 dimms to be the same size, I dont think so.. I believe so long as each pair matches, all will be fine ( 2 x 1gb = 1 dual channel pair, 2 x 512 = another dual channel pair)

Correct me if you know for certain im wrong

[ArmagoN]

agree all 4 channels will be seperated for dual channel support, so you should have pair a and pair b.

essentially if you put 2 1GB sticks in with the 2 512mb sticks the !gb pair will work together and the 512mb will work together very well. but depending on technology used on the board, the crossover between the 1gb stick and the 512mb sticks may be slower.

becuase the 4 slots are now sharing aload the 1gb sticks should go in the first 2 channels and the 512 in the second channel pair. this will create an excellent go between as you ont be bottle necked by the 512mbs in the 1st channel.

Besides 3gb of ram is just excessive for the time!!!! lol