P4C800 single channel using 2 x 512 dimms?

[Bob Byrne]

Hello,
I'm about to get a P4 motherboard but this dual channel memory
thing has me stumped.
According to the P4C800-E Deluxe manual the recommended config
for single channel is one dimm in any one of the four available slots.
I want to install two 512Mb dimms for a total of 1Gb single channel.
Why is this not recommended?
The manual also states that "Dimms installed into any three sockets
will function in single channel mode" but this isn't recommended either.

Can I put my dimms into slots A1 and A2 safely?

Of course I'm basing this on the assumption that I'd be better off
with 1Gb of single channel as opposed to 512Mb of dual channel.

 

[Navid]

Hello,
I'm about to get a P4 motherboard but this dual channel memory
thing has me stumped.
According to the P4C800-E Deluxe manual the recommended config
for single channel is one dimm in any one of the four available slots.
I want to install two 512Mb dimms for a total of 1Gb single channel.
Why is this not recommended?
The manual also states that "Dimms installed into any three sockets
will function in single channel mode" but this isn't recommended either.

Can I put my dimms into slots A1 and A2 safely?

Of course I'm basing this on the assumption that I'd be better off
with 1Gb of single channel as opposed to 512Mb of dual channel.

If you have two 512M sticks, all you have to do to make it 1G dual channel
is to put them in the right sockets (as long as the two sticks are similar
enough). You gain nothing by putting them in the other sockets to get
single channel. Why is it that you want single channel!!!? Unless, you
have two very different 512M sticks. Then, that is a different story.

Your last paragraph suggests that you are under the assumption that you can
get 1G single channel versus 512M dual channel. That is not correct. The
total amount of memory has nothing to do with single or dual channel.

 

[Dan Spears]

Put the two 513MB memory sticks in the two slots to have dual channel. You
will end up with 1 GB of dual channel memory that runs twice a fast as 1GB
of single channel memory.

 

[Bob Byrne]

........
Your last paragraph suggests that you are under the assumption that you can
get 1G single channel versus 512M dual channel. .....

Quite so. I just read a white paper on Dual Channel and it is a lot clearer now.
I was under the wrong impression that twice the throughput meant half the capacity.

 

[Bob Byrne]

Put the two 513MB memory sticks in the two slots to have dual channel. You
will end up with 1 GB of dual channel memory that runs twice a fast as 1GB
of single channel memory.

Well not quite that fast but I take your point.

"In this industry-standard benchmark showing 3D graphical performance, going from
single- to dual-channel PC3200 memory increases system performance by over 15
percent." (Intel Dual-Channel DDR Memory Architecture White Paper Rev 1.0 Sept 2003)