Re: Dual channel memory question

[Lisi <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

On Saturday 17 April 2010 05:35:45 Nick Boyce wrote:
> On 17/04/2010 01:03, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
> > Camaleón put forth on 4/16/2010 8:31 AM:
> >> It can be worst, though. There are manufacturers that paint all the RAM
> >> slots in black or using the same color and so forcing us to read the
> >> manual >:-)
> >
> > The manufacturers have bastardized the color coding to the point it's
> > useless; thus reading the manual is the only safe bet to get dual channel
> > operation setup correctly.
>
> Um ... just my 2p: [score -1, redundant]
>
> My current rig - Abit NF7-S V2 mobo (Nforce 2 chipset) and Athlon XP CPU
> - has 3 DIMM slots all the same fetching shade of blue.  I initially
> added two 256Mb sticks in slots 1 & 2, and got dual channel operation
> (the BIOS reports it at boot time : "Dual Channel Operation Enabled").
> When I subsequently added another 512Mb stick in slot 3 this did not
> apparently affect dual channel operation (the message still appears).
> Maybe I get dual channel for the first 512Mb, but only single channel
> for the second 512Mb.

I too have an  Abit NF7 (tho' not an -S).  The memory was installed by the 
shop where I bought the components of my computer.  (I was intending to build 
it myself and he didn't trust me with the CPU or memory!!)  He told me taht I 
had dual channel memory installed, and would need to replace both 256 Mb 
sticks if I increased the memory capacity.

I have never seen any sign of dual channel operation. (Tho' I didn't know what 
to look for, which hardly helped!)

dmidecode gives:

Memory Device
       [snip]
        Size: 256 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: A0
        Bank Locator: Bank0/1
        [snip]

Memory Device
        [snip]
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: A1
        Bank Locator: Bank2/3
        [snip]

Memory Device
        [snip]
        Size: 256 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: A2
        Bank Locator: Bank4/5
        
Would I be correct in taking this to mean  that the memory modules appear to 
be incorrectly installed, and that I could improve my memory performance by 
moving one of the modules that dual channel functions?  And also, if that 
does not give me enough improvement (which it almost certainly won't), I 
could add another module in the third channel, which would not necessarily 
need to be the same size as the other two?

TIA
Lisi