Dual Channel Memory Question

[lancekidd]

Hi,
I have an HP a6313 with Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit. It supports Dual Channel Memory and has 2 one gig cards in it with two more free slots.

I don't really understand a lot about Dual Channel Memory, but I understand it's best to buy the memory in pairs. However, I read on HP's site about my PC that normally 32 bit Vista only supports about 3 Gigs of RAM. The specs say my system can take 8 GB if it's 64 bit, and 4 GB if it's 32 bit but has an asterik beside that statement that says all of it may not be recognized.

My question is, would I benefit from just adding one more 1 Gig memory stick? Wally World has my memory available in one gig sticks for less than twenty dollars and the reviews are pretty good. It's DDR2 PC-5300 SDRAM. I also was curious about the buying memory in pairs part. If I bought two seperate sticks that were the exact same, would I get the dual channel affect or do you have to buy them together in the same package so to speak.

If my system is not going to show up but one more added gig, then I might as well not buy the other stick, but if it would help, it's not but twenty bucks extra to just get two of them.

Hope this makes sense

 

[TonHu]

Buy the 2x 1 GB sticks, and live with the fact you are only using the max of about 3,25 GB's. When switching to an x64 version of Vista or Windows 7 you can finally use it.

Otherwise, just buy 2x 512 MB sticks an put those in.

HTH
TonHu

 

[SimonDavies]

You can stick 4gb into your machine but you're right you will only see 3.5gb of that ram. Having more memory is always a good thing but going above 4gb can be problematic with machine freezes occuring if you're unlucky (I am speaking from experience and this is on two different motherboards.. ram concerned is fine and has been thoroughly testing using Memtest86+).

I should add that running a 64bit OS isn't a bad thing, I actually found Vista64 was far more stable than Vista32.

Simon

The real world is not about exam scores, it's about ability.

 

[Grenage]

Dual Channel memory is where the memory is almost used like a RAID array. In theory you get twice the speed, in reality you obviously do not.

The board will most likely have different coloured slots to indicate where the pairs will go. Most of the HP machines I have dealt with support dual channel configurations, but do not use it by default. Once the memory is correctly installed, check the BIOS configuration.

You will obviously need to run the memory in pairs, so either grab a couple of 512 sticks, or a couple of 1024 sticks.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[cdogg]

3GB, 3.25GB, 3.5GB...These are all estimates. The amount that is missing will vary and depend on the hardware that is installed. The following thread explains that in more detail:
thread602-1452884

Personally, I would probably go with TonHu's suggestion and add just 2 more sticks of 512MB paired in dual-channel since you have open slots.


Other threads that may help:

thread602-1457391 (lot of irrelevant info about laptops, but plenty in there about dual-channel)

thread602-1499932 (general info about DDR)

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[linney]

Rules of RAM
thread779-950354

RAM, Virtual Memory, PageFile and all that stuff.

http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders/WindowsGeneralWeb/RAMVirtualMemoryPageFileEtc.htm

Max RAM Used by Vista
thread1583-1467545

Vista RAM usage and 32/64 bit differences
thread1583-1379026