1 stick of ram in a 939?

[MonkFish]

is it possible to use only 1 stiick of ram with a 939 based system?

[Flibb]

One stick works in my asrock 939 board. Had problems botting originally so took of my pair out.

[MonkFish]

cool cheers for that i had doubts that you had to have 2 sticks because the chip is dual channel

[Flibb]

On my board it comes up in the post screen saying if its in dual or single channel mode.

Its a asrock 939 dual sata II

[MonkFish]

Fantastic, thats the board i am going to buy. thanks very much for your help

[GFiSH]

It will run with one stick, but obviously if you had a second stick it could run in dual channel which improves memory performance considerably. Both sticks need to be the same though.

[MonkFish]

Cheers my processor has just died in my rig and i have a 1gb dimm so i did not want to get rid of yet will eventually but i am skint atm. Must take this opp to upgrade a bit

[Flibb]

My rig is the asrock dual sata II, opteron 146 2x512 of geil that I had in my previous rig for a year or so.

had problems getting it to post with both sticks in so took one out, worked fine. Shoved the other in a non atched slot so that its single channel and works. Havent fiddled withthe memory settings much yet, but will when I can be bothered as I would like to get it to work dual channel. I needed to get the rig working quick so initially set the CPU as stock, have since OCd it to 2.5Ghz, just by hanging one value. Again it works so havent bothered trying any more yet. Might have chance for a fiddle at weekend, as the wifes of to see her parents.

[[DW]Cougho]

It will run with one stick, but obviously if you had a second stick it could run in dual channel which improves memory performance considerably. Both sticks need to be the same though.

Not considerably on an A64. In fact the difference is probably completely unnoticeable to you and me.

On p4's where memory bandwidth is a huge factor then the difference is very noticeable.

[mike_w]

Both sticks need to be the same though.

I don't think so - mixing and matching brands should be okay, so long as the motherboard likes that brand of memory. I think they can even be different sizes (don't hold me to that!)

[GFiSH]

Ok, thanks for that cougho and mike w, I learnt a bit there!!!

[Hans Voralberg]

I don't think so - mixing and matching brands should be okay, so long as the motherboard likes that brand of memory. I think they can even be different sizes (don't hold me to that!)

Different brand = no problem
Different timing in SPD = no problem
Different size = i dont think so afaik

[tungst3n]

I'm with Hans on this one -

I thought the main rules for Dual Channel memory were -

Has to be the same size - System is gonna have big problems with different memory sizes.
Brand - Brand doesn't have to be the same if size is the same.
SPD - Memory timings don't matter as much but system usually defaults to slowest memory

Best practice is still Same Memory, Same SPD and same Size.

Intel Rules on Dual Channel Memory (AMD wont be far of it)

Rules to Enable Dual Channel Mode
To achieve Dual Channel mode, the following conditions must be met:

* Matched DIMM configuration in each channel
* Same Density (128MB, 256MB, 512MB, etc.)
* Matched in both Channel A and Channel B memory channels
* Populate symmetrical memory slots (Slot 0 or Slot 1)

Note: Configurations that do not match the above conditions will revert to Single Channel mode.

The following conditions do not need to be met:

* Same brand
* Same timing specifications
* Same DDR speed

Note: Memory channel speed is determined by the slowest DIMM module populated in the system.