Should I take out some Ram?

Question

ok, I know that themore RAM you have the better...but I am just wondering...right now, my Memory Banks are like this

Mem. Bank 1 1gig

Mem. Bank 2 512mb

Mem. bank 3 1gig

Mem. Bank 4 512mb

now, would it be in my best interest to take ot the two 512mb sticks to leave the 2 Gigs and run them in dual channel mode? if I will get a performance boost by doing this, how do I turn on Dual Channel? I have been wondering this for a while, and I wuld lkike to know.

thanks all!!

Answer 1

You're probably better off leaving it.

The benefits of dual-channel mode are less than the benefits of another gig of RAM in most cases.  Faster RAM access is nice, but if you reduce your total memory, you'll start using virtual memory (swapping to disk) which is exponentially slower than any RAM.

But if you wanted to try dual channel mode for comparison, then pull the 512mb chips ( you can either leave those banks empty or add another pair of 1g DDR2 chips just like the ones you've got in banks 1 and 3).  If your applications aren't memory intensive, it might run a little faster.

Dual-channel mode only works when all the installed memory is the same capacity/type.  If you have a pair of 2gbs and a pair of 1gbs, no dual-channel.

Answer 2

i think you should check the base frequency of all the rams and then use those having same bus. or frequency. then your system will have better performance

Answer 3

You are better off with absolute matches when you install RAM.

Also, the more cards you have installed, the longer it takes to access the memory.

Take the smaller ones out and leave the 1G(s) in and see if it doesn't perform better.

Answer 4

The way it looks, both sets are running in dual channel mode.  Dual channel mode runs in pairs, so 1 and 3 are in DCM and 2 and 4 are DCM, so you're already running in dual channel mode, or should be.  It really depends on the motherboard.  Dells do it automatically, as well as most newer motherboards if you have the right kind of ram, and its dual channel.