The dual channel memory in xp pro

M

Mark G.

So XP Pro can only handle 3.4 gigs of RAM, correct? I have (4) dimm slots
with (2) 1 gig sticks achieving a total of 2 gigs in dual channel mode. This
leaves 2 open. I was only wanting to add another gig. Therefore I thought I
would just get a 1 gig stick. If I stick one stick in 1 of the 2 remaining
slots, will it mess up the dual channel mode on the other 2 sticks? If it
does, will I still be much better off with this extra gig over using dual
channel on 2 of the sticks? I had thought about getting (2) 512mb sticks to
fill the other 2, but it seems economically, I would be better off
purchasing 1 stick. Could I get some input and opinions on this please?
Thanks much!
 
M

Mark G.

Should add some more. My bad. My computer is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
processor and then a MSI motherboard. The motherboard is model "MS-7250 and
uses the Nvidia nForce 570 SLI chipset with the MS-7250 version 1.7 BIOS.
With that info, would you say that a better option is the 512mb x 2 option
rather than the 1 gig option?

My current RAM is Mushkin DDR2 800 PC 6400 with heat spreaders and a latency
of 5. Was thinking of getting a different brand of ram, but still good ram
and keeping the same speed and such. Am thinking this would be fine and if
anything about the pieces of ram differs in for instance the latency, then
the computer will just clock down to that.

And lastly, after checking Newegg's site, it would be about the same price
for either (1) 1 gig stick or (2) 512mb sticks. Maybe that in itself answers
my question?

Thoughts and whatnot please?

Thanks much.
 
S

sgopus

Read your MB manual, usually they say to add memory in balanced sticks, ie
one gig, add two sticks of memory that total adds up to one gig.
some MB accept one slot at a time, mine doesn't.
 

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