# Should DDR2 rams be in pair?



## bobby23 (Aug 6, 2010)

I have the following system:

Core 2 duo E6700
Asus motherboard (Supports up to 8GB)
250GB Seagate HDD
2*2 GB DDR2 Transcend Ram
450W Zebronics SMPS

I want to upgrade my Ram, is it possible to buy another 2 GB stick and have 6GB memory or only 8GB is possible?


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## Faun (Aug 6, 2010)

it is very much possible but may be u will be losing out on dual channel advantage. Read your motherboard manual for dual channel config.


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## Neuron (Aug 6, 2010)

and you will need a 64-bit OS to utilize more than 4GB of RAM


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## bobby23 (Aug 6, 2010)

I have windows 7 x64 OS


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## coderunknown (Aug 7, 2010)

^^ whats the system's use? 4Gb is a overkill for normal usage. 6-8Gb will be too much.


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## bobby23 (Aug 8, 2010)

video editing, animation rendering stuff like that and some games


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## abhijangda (Aug 8, 2010)

there is no need of 6 or 8 GB RAM, 4 GB is more than enough for the stuffs u want to do. u will not see any big change in ur computers performance after upgrading. upgrade ur graphics card rather. dont waste ur valuable money.


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## pegasus (Aug 26, 2010)

bobby sir, 
If you are using 64-bit OS, then you will benefit from more RAM i think.
As said earlier by others, adding one more stick will make the three 2GB  sticks run in single channel, thus sacrificing RAM speed a bit.
But the type of work you have mentioned, does benefit from more RAM afaik. 

Do you have DDR2 667 or DDR2 800?
True/noticeable performance gains with DDR2 RAM began from the 800Mhz sticks iirc.
If you have DDR2 667 sticks, the newer DDR2 800 stick/s will run at 667Mhz too.
You may add 2 sticks of 2 GB to make it 8GB overall and it will run in dual channel, though only in 2T.


abhijangda said:


> there is no need of 6 or 8 GB RAM, 4 GB is more than enough for the stuffs u want to do. u will not see any big change in ur computers performance after upgrading. upgrade ur graphics card rather. dont waste ur valuable money.


I am sorry but are you into animation, video editing, 3D rendering or any related profession?


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## bobby23 (Aug 27, 2010)

I think its 667Mhz


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## Deleted member 26636 (Aug 27, 2010)

if you are an animation student & want to render high detailed frames, believe me at some point even 4-6gb will seem less...rendering is highly dependant on RAM.


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## coderunknown (Aug 28, 2010)

pegasus said:


> adding one more stick will make the three 2GB  sticks run in single channel, thus sacrificing RAM speed a bit.
> But the type of work you have mentioned, does benefit from more RAM afaik.



actually the first 2 stick will run in Dual ch. the third stick in single channel. but this can bring unexpected problems & also performance going take a hit.


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## bobby23 (Aug 30, 2010)

so its best to use in pair....


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## VarDOS (Aug 31, 2010)

its better if you get another 2X2 pair. Then the both pairs will work on Dual Channel. Triple channel is the advantage of DDR3.

my n00b friend upgraded his PC's ram to 12GB - I was Lol'd after seeing it and the PC use was just for surfing and some very minor games like DAVE


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## bobby23 (Sep 2, 2010)

12GB just for surfing and dave??? u don't even need 1 GB for that.....


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## pegasus (Sep 3, 2010)

Sam.Shab said:


> actually the first 2 stick will run in Dual ch. the third stick in single channel. but this can bring unexpected problems & also performance going take a hit.


Can you please try out what you say and confirm it in CPU-Z?
Coz if it is what you say, i will give myself a hard whack on my head  and need to clear out the old stuff and input some fresh and correct  info. 

From what i remember, especially from the older motherboards, loosely put it went something like
- an even number of RAM sticks of same capacity (preferably identical/matched), in the appropriate slots, should work in dual channel
- an even number of sticks, with different capacity on any stick, will run in single channel
- an odd number of RAM sticks, irrespective of capacity of each stick will always work in single channel.



> For the best dual-channel memory performance on motherboards with the Intel dualchannel
> DDR chipsets, you must use identically paired memory modules in DIMM
> sockets 0 of channel A and B. Identically paired memory modules must also be used
> when populating DIMM sockets 1 of channel A and B. One can, for example, plug in
> ...


In the following diagram, the top section indicates 'dual channel' and the lower one indicates 'single channel' scenario.
*img8.imageshack.us/img8/446/singlevsdualchanneldiag.jpg
Source: *www.kingston.com/newtech/MKF_520DDRwhitepaper.pdf


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## pegasus (Sep 6, 2010)

No one tell if what i post still holds true or things have changed or i was totally wrong always?


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## coderunknown (Sep 13, 2010)

pegasus said:


> Can you please try out what you say and confirm it in CPU-Z?



i have only a pair of ram so its not possible for now (until a friend/neighbor gets a DD3 system).



pegasus said:


> From what i remember, especially from the older motherboards, loosely put it went something like
> - an even number of RAM sticks of same capacity (preferably identical/matched), in the appropriate slots, should work in dual channel
> - an even number of sticks, with different capacity on any stick, will run in single channel
> - an odd number of RAM sticks, irrespective of capacity of each stick will always work in single channel.
> ...



thanks a lot for clearing out my mistakes regarding ram  actually i read about it in NewEgg (user comment on Asus 870X board or so) & also somewhere else so i thought that its possible (to have dual ch & single ch memory at same time).


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## pegasus (Sep 16, 2010)

Sam.Shab said:


> actually i read about it in NewEgg (user comment on Asus 870X board or so) & also somewhere else so i thought that its possible (to have dual ch & single ch memory at same time).


Please do try and search and post those links here.
We never know if we miss something by mistake.


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