Dual channel ram not equal?

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:43 am

I'm running 2x256 geil pc4000 and I'm thinking of upgrading. Can I add 2*512 to give me a 1.5 gigs? Or do all four channels have to be equal?

lance-tek · Post by **lance-tek** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:49 am

good question Tom, I am not positive but I think as long as it is done in pairs you are OK. But I am just hoping ..... Since I just bought 2*512 PC4000 for the new system ....

I wanted to put more in but 512 is the largest I can find

-lance

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:00 am

Ditto. As long as they are paired up you should be ok.

I have not seen larger than 512MB either. Doubtless it's out there somewhere?

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:35 am

Can I ask though ... Exactly what do you guys need 1.5Gigs of memory for ?? ( Zooner you do Video conversion don't you ? )

That's half an XP OS worth of space ... lol

That would make one hell of a Ram drive ...

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:55 am

I was playing BF the other day. While maps load, I often ctrl-alt-del and bring back the desktop to check email etc. While I play, I often capture video AND do encoding at the same time.

I checked my swap file usage and was AMAZED to see over 700megs being used. Decided it was time for an upgrade!

Seems like a waste to only buy another 512, considering the extra minimal cost of taking the 1.5gig plunge.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:07 pm

Originally posted by jumpingrat
Ditto. As long as they are paired up you should be ok.

I have not seen larger than 512MB either. Doubtless it's out there somewhere?

Yes 1 gig sticks have been out for a while, I've worked with it.

And Zooner..yes in pairs, don't need 4x identicle. Larger sticks you will want in the first memory slots, smaller sticks in the others. The system will use the lower numbered pairs first, so you want your highest cap sticks in the lowest numbered banks. Reason being...if your system needs 512 megs, it will be quicker to pull/work with all 512 megs from a single stick, (or pair)...then to have to jump across several 128 sticks.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:16 pm

Originally posted by Mytflyguy
Can I ask though ... Exactly what do you guys need 1.5Gigs of memory for ??

the only real reason i do that is because i had another 512 stick laying around and i figured i may as well use it.

but it is nice to set photoshop up to use 1.2GB of ram, works so much faster.

if i could get some free ramdrive software that worked for me i would love to try it.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:18 pm

i currently have 1GB of ram, but i definitely want to upgrade to 2GB

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:36 pm

Originally posted by zooner

I checked my swap file usage and was AMAZED to see over 700megs being used. Decided it was time for an upgrade!

This is what boggles my mind .... I'm running 1 gig and there is no way I'm using too much Memory for the things I do ( this is not in reference to you ... just my personal stuff )

For the longest time I always thought the PF Usage meter in Task manager was showing the amount of physical memory being used ....Then I find out it actually is hat it says ... Pagefile ... So I'm wondering how in the hell amd I still using 150 Megs on average of Physical memory , just by running Outlook Anti virus and 1 or 2 other things .....

I know in Win98 there was the [Conservativeswapfile] line that would force it to use all of your physical memory before going to Virtual .... Is there a tweak for XP that would cause the same thing ?

Or is it actually better to just let it do it's thing ?

Also where do read the Actual amount of physical memory being used in comparison the the total amount in the system ?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 7:38 pm

i use a free program called aida32 to see how much memry i am useing.

fish59 · Post by **fish59** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 8:02 pm

Originally posted by Mytflyguy
This is what boggles my mind .... I'm running 1 gig and there is no way I'm using too much Memory for the things I do ( this is not in reference to you ... just my personal stuff )

For the longest time I always thought the PF Usage meter in Task manager was showing the amount of physical memory being used ....Then I find out it actually is hat it says ... Pagefile ... So I'm wondering how in the hell amd I still using 150 Megs on average of Physical memory , just by running Outlook Anti virus and 1 or 2 other things .....

I know in Win98 there was the [Conservativeswapfile] line that would force it to use all of your physical memory before going to Virtual .... Is there a tweak for XP that would cause the same thing ?

Or is it actually better to just let it do it's thing ?

Try setting your PF to zero.

Mytflyguy · Post by **Mytflyguy** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 8:41 pm

ummmm no ..... I've heard from several places that no matter how much Physical mem you have you will always need some Virtual memory as programs are designed to use it.

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:16 pm

Originally posted by Mytflyguy
ummmm no ..... I've heard from several places that no matter how much Physical mem you have you will always need some Virtual memory as programs are designed to use it.

mostly true. If you have enough memory, you can disable the swap file. However, there are cases where enormous amounts of memory are still needed. I've opened large mpeg2 files that gobbled up insane amounts of memory before.

I dont think a gig would be enough to allow you to disable your swap file. With 1.5-2gigs, perhaps it's something you could toy with. I believe that winxp will automatically enable it if a situation arises.

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:12 pm

I have 1.5 GB installed and I have actually run up into my page file a few times. Like zooner said it's the AV apps that eat up the RAM fast.
MS seems to say that the page file should not be disabled. I keep it enabled on the premis that it's there if I need it. Granted that a 2GB + page file is a nice size chunk of HD but if you have a large drive(s) it's not so bad % wise.

Yer right YOSC those 1 GB sticks are out readily available. And I guess that you would need them to run at the 4GB RAM limit with only 4 slots

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 2:12 am

Originally posted by jumpingrat
I have 1.5 GB installed and I have actually run up into my page file a few times. Like zooner said it's the AV apps that eat up the RAM fast.
MS seems to say that the page file should not be disabled. I keep it enabled on the premis that it's there if I need it. Granted that a 2GB + page file is a nice size chunk of HD but if you have a large drive(s) it's not so bad % wise.

Yer right YOSC those 1 GB sticks are out readily available. And I guess that you would need them to run at the 4GB RAM limit with only 4 slots

so, how do you like 1.5? thinking of making the leap myself and wondering if its worth it.

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Tue Feb 24, 2004 5:05 am

I went from 512MB up to 1.5GB and it did make a difference with games and AV stuff. I almost never see that stutter step or pause in those apps anymore. I think too that it's just nice knowing that it's there if you need it.
I'd say that with the price RAM so low and the fact that you do games and AV's and stuff like that. You really can't go wrong with 1.5, and like I said you will appreciate it when you do need it.

kieofwoo · Post by **kieofwoo** » Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:29 am

to backtrack a little, I'm running 2 x 256 and 1 x 512

when I first installed the memory, I put them in teh wrong slots so that i had 768 in one channel and 256 in the other. However the bios still said I was running dual channel, go figure. It seems that before i was 512 in dual and 512 in single channel... if that's possible.

I've now got 512 in each channel which is what I've been told is the correct setup.