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.
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.
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.
Comments
Where does it say 200? CPU-z or at post?
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.
will my computer run faster if i can get it running in dual channel mode? the cpu btw, is an athlon 64x2 3800+
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.
Yeah, I thought it had to be that way, too.
_______
_______
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.
Changed the voltage?
Latest bios version?