Dual channel???

MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
edited April 2004 in Hardware
I have ASUS P4S800 as my motherboard. I have a P4 2.8C processor, and DDR400 - 512 megs on one stick, and a 200 MHz FSB, more if I go back to overclocking. When I was building this system, I wasn't aware of dual channel ram configurations. So, a few questions. What are the benefits of using 2 sticks of ram to make your total instead of just one? (Like 2x256 instead of 1x512) Does the motherboard have anything to do with using dual channel? And if so, does anyone know if my particular mobo is dual channel compatible? Can anyone post some links demonstrating how it all works or maybe just comparisons between single and dual channel systems?

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2004
    Any 865 or 875 chipset for Intel has dual channel.

    The benefit is twice the bandwidth between the CPU and RUN with 2 sticks of RAM.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2004
    Just Intel... :banghead: I wish I'd known that when I was lookin' for my motherboard. :banghead:
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited April 2004
    Your board is an i865 chipset board I believe, which is a dual channel board, so you could buy another stick of ram the exact same as what you have and run it in DC mode. You would run them in either dimm 1 and dimm 3 or dimm 2 and dimm 4 slots and would be dual channel.
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited April 2004
    TheGr81 wrote:
    Just Intel... :banghead: I wish I'd known that when I was lookin' for my motherboard. :banghead:

    Me thinks you may have misunderstood. :-/

    Intel "Based", being the keyword. We have an Intel P4 2.8 HT proc running quite nicely on an Asus P4S800 MX, built in : Lan, Sound, Graphics mobo.

    2 sticks of ram for Hyperthreading. 1 for each side so to speak.

    There are lots of boards from different manufacturers that will Hyperthread with the correct processor. Our other one is a Gigabyte board, no problems.
    Both those puters are folding, 1xGui :fold: and 1x Console :fold: each. 2 puters doing 4 WU's, :fold::fold::fold::fold: :woowoo:

    Once you have the 2 sticks of ram in, i believe from watching Sally, the Handbrake, you set it up in the Bios.:type: All fairly straight forward.

    Jon
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited April 2004
    Had a look at the Asus site. This confirms your mobo is ok for HyperThreading.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    dragonV8 wrote:
    Both those puters are folding, 1xGui :fold: and 1x Console :fold: each. 2 puters doing 4 WU's, :fold::fold::fold::fold: :woowoo:Jon

    Three 3 clients each per CPU, simultaneously!
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2004
    Umm... Are you guys sure? I kinda feel stupid goin' against what 3 people just said, but my chipset is SiS, not Intel. And looking over the box my mobo came in, and the ASUS website on my board, it doesn't say anything about dual channel. And mud, my mobo's got 3 ram slots, not four. And also my BIOS doesn't have any options for ram besides the timings and memory frequency. And voltage.
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2004
    Yup... Definately NOT dual channel. Look at this pic from the P4C800 deluxe, and my motherboard. Compare, taking into notice the peak memory bandwidths of each.
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited April 2004
    This is our Asus P4S800-MX board. Quite a cheap all in one. Uses the SiS chipset, running in HyperThreading. This is the only reason we purchased this board.

    The screen shot i did before is from the Asus site and is for the P4S800 mobo.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Dual Channel is overrated... not yet have I noticed any difference between a good Single CHannel setup and any Dual Channel setup.

    The only difference I found was when I benchmarked the system, it showed a good memory bandwidth gain, but inmy games and programs, NULL... I just couldn't really tell you.

    Does it help? Yes.
    Should you cry if you don't have it? No.

    Don't upgrade JUST to get Dual Channel... but when you do upgrade, try to get it, but if it ain't supported, if the reviews show the board to be worthy get that.

    I have an Athlon64 system, it doesn't have Dual Channel, yet it rocks either way ;) It is better than my P4 2.4GHz OC'd to 2.8GHz which had Dual Channel...
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2004
    Dragon, I'm asking about dual channel not Hyperthreading. I know my motherboard supports hyperthreading, I'm running it now. I just said my mobo doesn't support dual channel but i know it's good for hyperthreading.
  • dragonV8dragonV8 not here much New
    edited April 2004
    TheGr81 wrote:
    Dragon, I'm asking about dual channel not Hyperthreading. I know my motherboard supports hyperthreading, I'm running it now. I just said my mobo doesn't support dual channel but i know it's good for hyperthreading.

    My mistake. Thought it was the same thing. i'll go back to sleep now.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited April 2004
    I did mean Intel based and not an Intel board. But it does look like it doesnt have dual channel on your board. :(
  • MedlockMedlock Miramar, Florida Member
    edited April 2004
    Yeah, I knew you meant Intel based. Kinda sucks my board doesn't support it.
Sign In or Register to comment.