ddr400 showing up as 200 and not dual channel

[kanezfan]

OK I have 1.5gb of ram and it's all ddr-400 (pc3200) but when I boot up my pc it says 200 mhz 64 bit single channel.

wtf?

[RyderOCZ]

What motherboard?
Where does it say 200? CPU-z or at post?

[GrayFox]

OK I have 1.5gb of ram and it's all ddr-400 (pc3200) but when I boot up my pc it says 200 mhz 64 bit single channel.

wtf?

Your ram isn't in dual channel mode when it is it will say 128bit. (You have to put both sticks in the right slots, Read your motherboard manual for more information)

Also 200mhz is right for the clock speed. PC3200 is only 200mhz. (Runs at the same as your bus speed unless you use a divider)

DDR (Double Data Rate) just indicates that it is twice as efficient as SD-RAM at the same clock speeds, Not that it runs twice as fast. Its a common misconception.

[kanezfan]

asus a8n (i think, something like that) and the i have the ram set up like both 512 stick next to each other and both 256 stick next to each other.

will my computer run faster if i can get it running in dual channel mode? the cpu btw, is an athlon 64x2 3800+

[kanezfan]

a8n-sli-se is the mobo

[RyderOCZ]

Ok... so this is 939.

You have unbalanced channels, you want

CPUSocket
512
256
512
256

or

CPUSocket
256
512
256
512

To get Dual channel back.

Regarding the 200 at post...many of the A8N/AN8 (Asus/Abit) boards defaulted to DDR200 with 4 sticks.. just set DDR400 in the bios and make sure 2T is set, with 4 sticks. It still may not boot at 400, you may have to settle for 333 due to the board.

Make sure you have the latest bios.

[kanezfan]

ok thanks for the info. i'll do that asap and let you know how it goes. always thought the ram should be 512 512 256 256 but i'll do it your way hehe

[kanezfan]

OK we're back to 128bit.

[Gargoyle]

ok thanks for the info. i'll do that asap and let you know how it goes. always thought the ram should be 512 512 256 256 but i'll do it your way hehe

Yeah, I thought it had to be that way, too.

[kanezfan]

how do i make sure my ram is running at 400mhz though?

[RyderOCZ]

When you have slots arranged in 2 "pairs" like this:
_______
--------
_______
--------

Then each "pair" is a channel... if you put 2 x 512 in the first 2 slots, then 2 x 256 in the second 2 slots, you know have 1GB in the first channel and 512MB in the second channel.
If you put 1 of each in the first 2 and then 1 of each in the second 2 you now have 768MB in each channel. Follow?

If your slots are all equally grouped together (4 slots all right next to each other on the board) then you need to do it the way you described because every other slot is a different channel and it would result in balanced channels.

EDIT: Get CPU-z: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php Run it and click the memory tab, it will show the speed and timings.

[kanezfan]

ok so cpuz says my ram is running at 100mhz, 200 mhz ddr. gonna try and set it to 200mhz in the bios and hope it works.

[kanezfan]

tried running it at 200mhz, wouldn't boot. got it running at 166mhz though. sucks but it's better than before so i guess i can't complain.

[RyderOCZ]

Are you running 2.5-3-3-x for timings?

Changed the voltage?

Latest bios version?

[kanezfan]

latest BIOS yeah, sad that it's from 2006. haven't changed voltage. how much should i bump it up by?

[RyderOCZ]

0.1 to try it.