Am I running in dual channel?

[Acrylik]

Okay, so I recently purchased new computer hardware...and one of these items was 2 sticks of 2gb RAM, since I thought I wasn't running in dual channel with my current RAM (Which..I still don't think I am.)

On CPU-Z, It says I am running dual channel even though I have mismatched pairs of ram (one 2gb, one 4gb) both from totally different companies...one dell (Came with the PC) and one corsair.

Is that even possible? I'm sorry, I really don't know much about memory stuff :3, I'm thinking it's just a bug with CPU-Z, but I'm not sure.

If I really am running in dual channel, should I run my current 4gb stick with one of my new 2gb sticks once all of my new stuff gets here? (I bought a new case, motherboard, cpu, along with the ram)

 

[PiraticaL]

Dual channel should be determined by what DIMM slots you have your memory in. If the slots are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 for example most of the time you would have slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 filled in order to run dual channel. Obviously having all four slots filled would also be dual channel. I'm not sure about running two different types of RAM though. All I have ever done is ran matched sets with one another. It would probably be a good idea to have them the same speed i.e. 800 Mhz, 1066, 1333 etc.

Check the manual for the Mobo as far as what slot is what or for the particulars on dual channel. If you get your new parts and you end up with matching sets of RAM I would run those as opposed to the mismatching. I'm no expert but I hope this helps somewhat.

I had this in your other thread but I think you moved it right as I posted.

 

[gggirlgeek]

Yes, many motherboards can run memory in dual-channel mode if the sticks are even multiples in size. In my last board (an LGA 775) I had 3 sticks of ram: 2 @ 512mb, and 1 @ 2Gb. They all ran happily in dual-channel mode. They were completely different brands too, just the same frequency. I believe it has to be 2, 3 or 4 sticks. It cannot be 5 sticks, for example.

The motherboard documentation specified that I could do this. I put the two 512's next to each other (1A & 1B) and the 2Gb stick in rail 2A. The manual also said to use 2 sizes. So don't buy 512mb, 1Gb, and 3Gb. But if you already have them try it and see. They might just work!

 

[jsc]

If CPU-Z says that you are running in dual channel mode, you are probably running in dual channel mode.