3 DIMM slot wtf?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Helix
  • Start date Start date
H

Helix

Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.

Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.

Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel, which
allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.

I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.

My point is if i only have 3 DIMM slots and i install 3 Ram Moduals
would that break up the dual channel since ram needs to be installed in
pairs? funny eh? i thought so to !

hers the specs I spaced the paragraph with DIMM information to find it
easier. thanks for your help


Supports Socket A for AMD Athlon /Athlon XP/Duron processors @FSB
200/266/333/400. Supports 600MHz up to Athlon XP 3000+ processor or
higher. nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset. USB 2.0, 8xAGp, 5PCI, 3 Dual
DDR 400, max 3gb, S/W 6 Channel Audio, 1394, RAID 0,1,0+1, Gigabit LAN.
Replaced the K7N2DELTAILSR

MODEL- K7N2 DELTA2 PLAT VENDOR- MSI COMPUTER CORP. FEATURES- ATX
nVIDIA AMD Motherboard Supports Socket A for AMD processors.
3 DIMMs with DDR 400 up to 3 GB. 1 AGP 8X ; 5 PCI; 8 USB ports
6 Channel Audio; Gigabit LAN; IEEE 1394; RAID; SATA; ATA133
Live Update; Fuzzy Logic; PC Alert; MSI CoreCell; MSI CoreCenter;
DOT.* AGP 8X - New AGP 3.0 graphics standard, also backwards
compatible with AGP 2.0. 2.1 GB/s (data Transfer Rate) at 1.5
voltage. * Live Update 2 - The ultimate combo of MSI exclusive Live
BIOS, Live Driver, Live VGA BIOS, Live VGA Driver, Live Utility
and the brand new Live Monitor. - Online update
BIOS/Driver/Utility. - Live Monitor auto-detects and suggests the
latest BIOS/Driver/ Utilities information. * MSI CoreCell chip
The extreme chip you have needed for motherboard, enables your system
with: - Less Noise - Longer Duration - More
Power-Saving - Higher Performance -- SPECIFICATIONs
------------------------------------CPU - Supports Socket A for
AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron/Sempron processors at Front Side
Bus 266/333/400 MHz. Supports up to 3200+ processor or
higher.BIOS - The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which
detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the
board automatically. The mainboard provides a
Desktop Management Interface (DMI) function which records
your mainboard specifications. CHIPSET - nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400
Chipset - Supports DDR200/266/333/400 -
Supports AGP 8x and PCI Advanced high-performance memory
controller. nVIDIA nForce2 Gigabit MCP Chipset
- Integrated Ethernet MAC - Integrated Hardware Sound
Blaster/Direct Sound AC97 audio - Ultra DMA 66/100/133
master mode PCI EIDE controller - Supports USB 2.0
- Integrated SATA Interface


MEMORY - Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
Supports up to 3.0 GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs.
Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM.



SLOTS - (5) Five 32-bit PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus
interface). (1) AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
1.5V 4X/8X slotPCI IDE - Two IDE controller on the nVIDIA nForce2
Gigabit MCP chipset provides IDE HDD/CDROM with PIO, Bus
Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.
Can connect up to four IDE devices.SERIAL ATA- Integrated SATA Phy,
supporting up to 2 ports One SATA controller, supporting
two drives in master mode.NV RAID - (in Software) Supports
2 serial ATA plus 4 ATA 133 Drives - RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD
is supported - Booting from RAID - Cross
controller RAID support - Rebuilding on the Fly
- Spare Disk Allocation Supports Windows 2000 and
later versions AUDIO - Chip integrated (5.1 channel H/W audio)
- Direct Sound AC97 audio - 6 channel analog
output - Digital SPDIF out signal compatible W/S-Bracket
VIDEO - none ETHERNET - Integrated 10/100/1000 Enternet
802.3 NVIDIA MAC for 1000BaseT/100BaseTX/10BaseT RGMII for
Gigabit/Fast Ethernet/Ethernet FIREWIRE - Integrated FireWire supports
up to (3) 1394 ports (via external bracket). Transfer rate
is up to 400Mbps.I/O PORTS- (1) Floppy port that supports two FDD with
360KB, 720KB, 1.44MB and 2.88MB. (1) RS-232
Serial port (1) Parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode
(1) Audio jack (5-in-1), coaxial/fiber SPDIF out (8) USB
2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports in the rear I/O, 4 ports via
external bracket) (3) IEEE-1394a/FireWire connectors (via
external bracket) (1) D-Bracket2 pin header (1)
10BaseT/100BaseTX/1000BaseT/RJ45 portPCB SIZE - ATX form factor, 30.4cm
x 24.0cm, 6 mounting holeswww.msicomputer.com
 
Helix said:
Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.
Click to expand...
so far this is normal... looks weird to the uneducated....
Your specs also indicate 3 DIMMS

Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.
Click to expand...

Sounds right...
Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel, which
allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.
Click to expand...

Most? Doesn't even sound as if your board does....
I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.
Click to expand...

Some performance boosts in a dual-channel system, some say a lot, some say
very little...
My point is if i only have 3 DIMM slots and i install 3 Ram Moduals
would that break up the dual channel since ram needs to be installed in
pairs? funny eh? i thought so to !
Click to expand...

You don't have to worry about that. Ran doesn't need to be installed in
pairs, only if you want want to use dual-channel memory in a board that
supports that option. Your board appears to support it as much as it would
support a AMD64 chip. Please do not create a post telling us about the bad
designs of your board vs the 64 bit architecture...
hers the specs I spaced the paragraph with DIMM information to find it
easier. thanks for your help
Click to expand...

Not sure what you are trying to prove with all this info. Does not appear
to support dual-channel. I'm sure if it did, they would promote this
feature, as they do 6 channel audio, 1394, etc...
 
Helix said:
Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.

Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.

Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel, which
allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.

I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.

My point is if i only have 3 DIMM slots and i install 3 Ram Moduals
would that break up the dual channel since ram needs to be installed in
pairs? funny eh? i thought so to !

hers the specs I spaced the paragraph with DIMM information to find it
easier. thanks for your help


Supports Socket A for AMD Athlon /Athlon XP/Duron processors @FSB
200/266/333/400. Supports 600MHz up to Athlon XP 3000+ processor or
higher. nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset. USB 2.0, 8xAGp, 5PCI, 3 Dual
DDR 400, max 3gb, S/W 6 Channel Audio, 1394, RAID 0,1,0+1, Gigabit LAN.
Replaced the K7N2DELTAILSR

MODEL- K7N2 DELTA2 PLAT VENDOR- MSI COMPUTER CORP. FEATURES- ATX
Click to expand...
<snip>

You might want to try for responses specific to your motherboard in the MSI
group.

alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.msi-microstar

In general, you decide what you want. Maximum memory (3 slots filled), or
maximum performance from up to 2 Gig in paired modules. It's a chipset
thing.
 
Helix said:
Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.

Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.

Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel, which
allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.

I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.

My point is if i only have 3 DIMM slots and i install 3 Ram Moduals
would that break up the dual channel since ram needs to be installed in
pairs? funny eh? i thought so to !

hers the specs I spaced the paragraph with DIMM information to find it
easier. thanks for your help
Click to expand...
MEMORY - Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
Supports up to 3.0 GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs.
Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM.
Click to expand...
There is one listed here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-458&depa=0

"RAM: 3x DIMM Dual-Channel DDR266/333/400 Max 3GB"

I have an A7N8X-E and I've tested the Dual Channel feature.
I used a modified version of memtest86 to test memory bandwidth.

http://groups.google.ca/[email protected]

What my results show, is if the amount of memory on the two channels
is not balanced, the memory transfer bandwidth varies with the
memory address you are using. This is my result when using three
512MB sticks of memory. Two thirds of the memory transfer at the
"dual channel" rate and the upper third of memory transfers at the
"single channel" rate:

Address Bandwidth
Hexidecimal MB/sec
08000000 1435 ; (This is address 128MB)
10000000 1435
18000000 1435
20000000 1435
28000000 1435
30000000 1435
38000000 1435
40000000 916 ; (This is address 1GB)
48000000 916
50000000 916
58000000 916

It works like this:

Slot1+2 Slot3
512MB 512MB <--- In low memory, the controller alternates
512MB <--- In high memory, no alternation is possible

In low memory, the controller reads slot1,slot3,slot1,slot3
In high memory, the controller reads slot2,-----,slot2,-----

Due to the ability to alternate, by going to slot1 then slot3,
the controller gets more bandwidth for the lower 1GB of memory.

Depending on whether your OS or your applications live in high
memory, will determine whether you see a small difference in
application performance. The numbers above are gathered using
a "synthetic" benchmark, and real applications are less affected
than the numbers above show.

So, if you wish to install three 1GB DIMMs, it will work, and for
2/3rds of the memory space, it works in dual channel mode.

On the Asus side of things, the A7N8X-E is the dual channel board,
and the A7N8X-X is the single channel board. On the A7N8X-X you
would expect the above test to return "916MB/sec" for all of
the memory.

The above memory was running DDR400 2-2-2-6, processor rate
equivalent to 3200+ (200x11). Memory and FSB synchronous.

HTH,
Paul
 
Helix said:
Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.
Click to expand...

Yes, two banks per DIMM.
Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.
Click to expand...

No, and yes.
Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel,
which allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.
Click to expand...

Some boards.
I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.
Aha.

My point is if i only have 3 DIMM slots and i install 3 Ram Moduals
would that break up the dual channel since ram needs to be installed
in pairs? funny eh? i thought so to !
Click to expand...

Nope, not on an nForce2.
hers the specs I spaced the paragraph with DIMM information to find it
easier. thanks for your help
Click to expand...

If you want us to help you, it would be better to format the whole lot than
just post a mess.
nVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset.
Click to expand...

Which supports Dual Channel.
3 DIMMs with DDR 400 up to 3 GB.
Click to expand...
MEMORY - Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
Supports up to 3.0 GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs.
Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM.
Click to expand...

I don't understand your complaint about an MSI board in an Asus group.

But to humour you:

If you want Dual Channel, you can put some memory on each channel, of which
there are two. This memory does not need to be matched in size, spec or
anything else (it does have to fit in the slot, however). Just configure
the RAM with the lowest common denominator and you'll be fine.

If you want 3GB then you must populate all three DIMM slots with 1GB
modules.
If you want Dual Channel, you must have at least 2 modules, one (or more)
per channel.

Ben
 
Helix said:
Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks.

Inconceivable right? it gets better. Using 3 DIMM slots it can be
upgraded to 3 gig.

Now, most if not all mainboards have a feature call dual channel, which
allow you to install Moduals in pairs for faster processing.

I'll put it this way, its better to install 2 moduals than only 1
1 modual can work but not as effciently as 2. well i think you got the
idea.
Click to expand...

The idea is you can expand you memory by buying a module
that is twice the size of your existing module. Example...

If you have 2x256M for 512M total, and want to increase it.
Buy a 512M module and put the 2x256M in one bank and the
512M module in the other bank. Now you have 1GB with the
banks balanced so that dual channel works.
 
woah!! A troublemaker lol, heh, So I am the one who is uneducated? LOL?


Lemma learn ya something son,

Can you quote me where I said this was a bad design? lol?
<you have been refuted>

Tell me Mr. trouble maker, What is Ran? lol? Its spelled RAM lmao!
Also, where do you see in the specs that my mobo supports AMD 64? lol?
<you have been refuted>

Mr. bully troublemaker, the fastest AMD processors in the Socket A
format is the Athlon XP3200+, didn't you know this O'wise one? lol?
<you have been refuted>

Finally Mr. bully trouble maker, here's what I've learned from every
one else who were very helpful: the word again is help-ful btw thank
you all.

I learned (from every one else) that I can pair my Modules like so
DIMM1+DIMM3 or DIMM2+DIMM3 to run dual channel.
If I plug three sticks memory, they could not run Dual Channel, which
is determined by the chipset, This is a hardware limitation and I need
to make an option between running Dual channel with two sticks memory
and using three sticks memory.

Mr. bully trouble maker, what this info helpful to you>?
I hope so.


--Helix
 
People like mike are not helpful there RUED!

Mr. Pope thank you for your help. Pls forgive me as i am new to google
news group, and unedgeamacated about my mobo and all other mobo's. I
posted here to find help with dual channel issue not MSI being a bad
mother board

Lets all please forget the fact that this is an MSI mobo, and focus on
the real point (my questions), Im not complaining about MSI im trying
to understand about dual channel

I posted all the specs to provide info on this specific mobo to aid
some one who can help with my questions.

Mr. Pope I dont believe your humouring me.
You helped me, thank you.

You other people who made your shitty ass comments/post in reply to my
call for understanding/help. I really do hope Mr. Pope has influenced
you all to be much nicer people.


Peace

--Helix
 
Mike, i mean helpful one.... I quote you

"Please do not create a post telling us about the bad
designs of your board vs the 64 bit architecture"

I never did. WHERE do you come up with this stuff???
 
Thank you John for your help. people like you really make a difference
and set a higher standard that all should follow.


--Helix
 
Mike, omg, whats with the wise ass comments any ways?

<"Ok my mainboard has 3 DIMM slots, in the specs it says it has 6 banks
Mike says:
<so far this is normal... looks weird to the uneducated....
Your specs also indicate 3 DIMMS "

woah!! A troublemaker lol, heh, So I am the one who is uneducated? LOL?


All i wanted was to know why my mobo had only 3DIMMs and how dual
channel was supported using 3 DIMMS.

Mike, Lemma learn ya something son,

Mike says:
"Please do not create a post telling us about the bad
designs of your board vs the 64 bit architecture"

Can you quote me where I said this was a bad design? lol?
<you have been refuted>

<"only if you want want to use dual-channel memory in a board that
supports that option.Your board appears to support it as much as it
would support a AMD64 chip"

Tell me Mr. trouble maker Mike, where do you see in the specs that my
mobo supports AMD 64? lol?
<you have been refuted>


Mr. bully troublemaker, the fastest AMD processors in the Socket A
format is the Athlon XP3200+, didn't you know this O'wise one? lol?
<you have been refuted>

<Mikes example of, Power of observation>

Mike says:
"Please do not create a post telling us about the bad
designs of your board vs the 64 bit architecture"

eerrrr this was about dual channel....
<you have been refuted>


Finally Mr. bully trouble maker mike, here's what I've learned from
every one else who were very helpful: the word again is help-ful btw
thank you all.

I learned (from every one else) that I can pair my Modules like so
DIMM1+DIMM3 or DIMM2+DIMM3 to run dual channel.
If I plug three sticks memory, they could not run Dual Channel, which
is determined by the chipset, This is a hardware limitation and I need
to make an option between running Dual channel with two sticks memory
and using three sticks memory.


Mr. bully trouble maker, what this info helpful to you>?
I hope so.


--Helix
 
Helix wrote:
I learned (from every one else) that I can pair my Modules like so
DIMM1+DIMM3 or DIMM2+DIMM3 to run dual channel.
If I plug three sticks memory, they could not run Dual Channel, which
is determined by the chipset, This is a hardware limitation and I need
to make an option between running Dual channel with two sticks memory
and using three sticks memory.
Click to expand...

You can run Dual Channel with 3 DIMMS on your board.

They could be 3 512s, or any other assymetric setup between channels, but
you will only get dual channel performance on twice the least amount in any
channel i.e., if it were 3 512MB DIMMS, you would have the lowest 1GB of
memory ion Dual Channel.

"Matched Pairs" are not required.

Ben
 
Back
Top