DDR3 "kit-of-3"

Rebellious · Post by **Rebellious** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:52 am

Is there a difference between Intel and AMD on DDR3 implementation? I notice they're selling "triple-channel" memory. Do you need a DDR3 kit of 3 sticks for triple-channel memory? Where do you put them if there are only 4 slots on the mobo?

Riffer · Post by **Riffer** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:59 am

Your motherboard has to support triple channel.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:00 pm

If there are 4 slots on the mobo, it sounds like it doesn't support triple channel. Those tend to have 6 slots.

Rebellious · Post by **Rebellious** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 1:09 pm

I was looking at Asus website, they don't have AMD ddr3 mobos with 6 slots. Their manual for M4A78T-E mentions DDR3 kits-of-3 but it only has 4 slots. What gives?

TheAtomicKid · Post by **TheAtomicKid** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:12 pm

You didn't mention which board or anything so...

If it's a socket 1366 board, it will have to have a triple channel memory setup, even though it may have four dimm sockets instead of six. (in which case, you can use four dimms, but accessing the memory on the last stick would induce a performance penalty... stick with multiples of 3 dimms for this socket)

My advice would be to download the motherboard manual for the board you're interested in, and see what that says about memory installation.

Atomic

FuturePastNow · Post by **FuturePastNow** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:08 am

Intel's Core i7 processors support triple channel. You will need three or six sticks of DDR3 to use triple channel. Of course, you don't have to use triple channel, and some LGA1366 motherboards have four slots. They do that to save space vs. six slots, and you'll see a negligible decrease in performance by using the fourth slot..

AMD Phenom II processors only support dual-channel DDR3. Optimally, the memory goes in pairs.