Guide to RAM Memory Channels as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2013-05-07
·
874 words · ~4 min read
0:02
okay so why does memory come with more than one stick in a kit what are these
0:07
channels everyone's always talking about find out everything you need to know
0:10
about RAM channels as fast as possible by watching this video When shopping for
0:15
computer memory there's all kinds of specs to pay attention to including the
0:18
frequency the timings the voltage and how many sticks actually come in the kit
0:23
and how many channels they're rated for you can usually tell by the little
0:26
number on the memory itself or on the box showing you how many pieces are
0:31
intended to be in the kit that's normally how many channels it's intended
0:34
to be operated in before you buy your memory you need to check your
0:37
motherboard or computer system to find out how many channels it supports the
0:41
easiest way to do this is the manual or the manufacturer website but failing
0:45
that you can check the labels on the motherboard itself or you can usually
0:49
tell by checking for colorcoded memory slots so they are normally coded with
0:54
all the same colors for how many sticks
0:57
you're supposed to populate at a time with one kit this particular board is a
1:01
quad Channel board which means it has four slots that are one color and four
1:06
slots that are another color that doesn't mean that you have to run quad
1:09
Channel kits in it it just means that that's what will yield the best
1:12
performance now A Memory kit is just a
1:15
bunch of individual memory sticks that are validated to work with each other
1:19
flawlessly in however many Channel operation it's rated for so in this case
1:24
a quad Channel kit could be reduced to a triple Channel kit or a dual Channel kit
1:28
just by taking memory sticks away because all those sticks are still
1:31
validated to work with each other normally that is to say that you could
1:35
normally take a quad Channel kit install all four sticks in a dual Channel
1:39
motherboard and it would operate in dual Channel with your full capacity full
1:43
performance and everything normally I said normally an awful lot of
1:48
times in that last shot there there's a reason for that this is a quad Channel
1:52
kit could I install it in a dual Channel board sure yes would it work probably
1:56
there are primary timings which the manufacturer tells you so so if it
2:00
doesn't detect correctly in your dual Channel board you could easily change
2:03
them around but there are actually more timings in fact some boards will give
2:07
you access to secondary and even tertiary timings on the memory that can
2:11
be optimized to work with a particular platform if the manufacturer sells you a
2:15
quad Channel kit they're expecting you to use it in an LGA 2011 board not an
2:20
1156 1155 or am3 board if you want to
2:24
run in dual Channel generally speaking buy a dual Channel kit if you want to
2:28
run in Quad Channel don't buy two dual Channel kits cuz they might work but
2:32
you're better off to buy a quad Channel kit cuz sometimes those optimizations
2:36
even though there's nothing wrong with the memory and nothing wrong with the board can cause stability issues and
2:40
they can be difficult to override and to diagnose now I'm not going to try and
2:45
convince you that if you mix and match your memory your system's going to
2:48
explode and it's not going to work at all cuz there's a good chance it actually will however if you're
2:53
populating your memory with unmatched sticks there is a chance that they won't
2:57
operate in dual Channel or triple Channel or quad Channel or whatever your
3:01
motherboard is rated for which can negatively impact your performance in
3:05
fact in this board right here I've got a triple Channel kit installed in a dual
3:09
Channel motherboard which can on some boards actually reduce the entire memory
3:14
bank to single Channel performance so if
3:17
you need the extra RAM capacity more than you need the bandwidth there can
3:21
still be a benefit to doing this but in most cases it's not ideal you're better
3:25
off to take one stick out or add another matching stick another example would be
3:30
a quad Channel motherboard with a single stick installed this example gives you
3:34
one qu of the total bandwidth that that CPU might need or that that motherboard
3:39
is capable of delivering so it's just not an optimal
3:45
configuration hey guys thanks for watching this episode of as fast as
3:49
possible on Techquickie if you enjoyed it make sure you subscribe and also
3:52
don't forget to hit that like button it helps us out a lot share this video with
3:56
anyone you think might benefit from it and if you have any ideas for future
4:00
episodes as fast as possible click the link in the description of the video and
4:04
leave us a suggestion we will make sure to monitor it and hopefully you'll see
4:07
your idea soon see you guys again next time