Question about dual channel RAM

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:16 am

I know that it is popular to sell RAM in kits of two these days for the guaranteed dual-channel support. What I am wondering is if it has to be sold as a kit to work? I'm eyeballing this Mushkin PC3200 RAM for $70. I could grab 2 of these for $150 shipped and that seems a good deal for 1 gig of RAM.

Have any of you successfully ran dual channel with 2 sticks not purchased as a kit?

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 2:05 am

it should almost always work, as long as you buy them at the same time - only problems are normally when the DIMMs are different revisions of the same product (and even then it's not fair to say it won't work). all you're paying for (well, usually it's a bit cheaper to buy paired DIMMs anyways) is having the two DIMMs tested together.

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:52 am

I'm currently running 2x256MB and 1x512MB Geil Value RAM, all bought, individually, in Dual Channel mode. As long as the sticks are the same make and model - the same manufacturer, speed and memory timings - there should not be any problem. The difference between two identical sticks and a Dual Channel pair is that the latter are tested and guaranteed to work in Dual Channel mode, while the former are not. If your two individual sticks don't work together in Dual Channel mode, manufacturers will rarely offer any support. You shouldn't have any problems though, if you are buying two identical sticks at the same time.