Reign

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Hey
I just ordered 2x1024 GB Dual channel of OCZ pc3200 gold Edition GX XTC 2-3-3-8.
I already have 2x512 MB Dual channel of OCZ pc3200 gold C2 2-3-3-6 in my system.
Would it be better if i installed the new 2 Gb for a total of 3 GB ? or should I get rid of the 512 sticks and just install the 2 GB ? I heard I might have problems if I mix with the 512 sticks.

Thanks!
 

Reign

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I guess I'll go for 3 GB then. Will I have to tweak something in the bios, or do I just insert them and i'm ready to go?
Thanks!
 

Mondoman

Splendid
They should work as plug n play. However, if the DIMM ratings are manufacturer-sanctioned overclock ratings, the "auto" settings may have them running at a slower speed. In that case, you will have to look up the speed, latency, and voltage settings from the manufacturer, then set the DIMM voltage first in the BIOS (to the higher voltage of the two sets of DIMMs), saving and rebooting, then setting the RAM speed and latency (to whichever is the slowest among the DIMMs - in your case 2-3-3-8 ).
 

Reign

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They don't seem to work together. I've tested both dual sets separately and they work fine on their own but when I put in both the 2x512 and 2x1024 together, my computer doesn't boot up. The only thing that happens is that there's three red lights on the bottom left of my nforce 4 motherboard. Any idea as to why this might be happening?
 

Mondoman

Splendid
Did you set up the memory voltage before installing them? Did you set up the timings before installing them?

You might also try boosting the memory voltage another 0.05V or even 0.1V higher.
 

Reign

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No I didn't, do you know of any articles or tutorials that can guide me through that as I've never done it before?

Thanks!
 

darious00777

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I've been thinking about this for a while, as I'm kind of in the same situation if I get a dual channel kit for a one gigabyte plus one gigabyte pair.

Only thing I heard was that you'd want the 1024*1024 in the first dual channel set, and the 512*512 in the second. Should be fine, but then again, if you're having trouble the other way, not sure.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
No guides, it varies from BIOS to BIOS. The general problem is that much "premium" RAM is being sold these days as a manufacturer-sanctioned overclock requiring higher-than-standard DIMM voltages (DDR2 standard voltage is 1.8V). Look up the spec voltages for each of the DIMMs you have, then go into the BIOS and change the "memory voltage" or "DIMM voltage" or "Vdimm" or similar to the higher of the voltages you looked up. Save the changes to the BIOS and reboot. Then, try installing all 4 DIMMs and see if that works.
Here's a related post: http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1249881#1249881
 

Reign

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Thanks for all the help Mondoman, I'll read up on that forum.

I_Love_Tacos, I acutally have two dual channel sets. One is 2x1024 GB and the other is 2x512 MB. Which is ok considering it's not a single 1024 stick, right?
 

boogityboo04

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Are you sure? The way I remember it is as long as you have matched pair in each set of matched slots on the mobo it will work in Dual Channel mode. It would be easiest if someone with this sort of setup could just confirm this to be true or false...
 

Mondoman

Splendid
bb4 is right. There's no loss in performance by having two different-sized pairs (e.g. 2x 1GB and 2x 512MB, as long as one member of each pair is in each channel).
What you may be thinking of is putting different-sized modules in the two channels, e.g. 1x1GB in channel A and 2x 512MB in channel B. I don't think AMD, nVidia, and older Intel chipsets will run that in dual-channel mode. However, the latest Intel chipsets *will* run that in dual-channel mode, so no performance penalty as long as you've got a recent Intel chipset.
 

reader850

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In my motherboard, using more than 2 sticks of RAM forces the bios to run the RAM at 2T, which hurts performance by 2% to 10%+ depending on application. So for programs that don't need more than 2GB of RAM, 4 sticks will hurt performance. Not sure if this is true for all motherboards.
 

coronaz

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I have:

2x1GB Patriot 800MHz 4-4-4-12 + 2x512Mb Patriot 800MHz 4-4-4-12

installed.. giving me 3GB in Vista Ultimate x64.. I received a higher score in 3DMark06 with the 3GB compared to the 2GB setup.

This memory is identical in every way except the size.