Unmatched DIMMS for Dual Channel DDR

[Bill Woessner]

I bought a Dell PowerEdge 400SC with the intent of beefing it up with
aftermarket parts. It came with a single 128 MB PC3200 DIMM (ECC, I
believe). Naturally, I need to buy more RAM for it. My question is this:
Do I need to buy a matched pair to get the full benefit of dual channel
DDR? Or can I just buy a single DIMM (256 MB or 512 MB; not sure yet),
install it and get some benefit? As a follow-up, if I do buy a matched
pair, can I continue to use the existing DIMM or is it just junk?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

 

[Eddie]

I bought a Dell PowerEdge 400SC with the intent of beefing it up with
aftermarket parts. It came with a single 128 MB PC3200 DIMM (ECC, I
believe). Naturally, I need to buy more RAM for it. My question is this:
Do I need to buy a matched pair to get the full benefit of dual channel
DDR? Or can I just buy a single DIMM (256 MB or 512 MB; not sure yet),
install it and get some benefit? As a follow-up, if I do buy a matched
pair, can I continue to use the existing DIMM or is it just junk?

Thanks in advance,
Bill

Bill, generally you need exactly matched pairs for Dual Channel. I think
you will find that if you do get matching pairs, then your existing ram is
of no use if you leave it in your sys will either freez, not start or will
work as if normal single channel.

Eddie

 

[DaveW]

Dual channel RAM should be used in MATCHED pairs. If you keep the oem stick
you'll probably be operating in single channel.

 

[Strontium]

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/nforce2-1vs2channels/

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Bill Woessner stood up at show-n-tell, in
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