[mythtvnz] The Plan... version 2

[Steve Holdoway]

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:21:48 +1300
Stephen Worthington <stephen_agent at jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:32:04 +1300, you wrote:
> 
> >Check the motherboard. You may need to install the ram in pairs, I have 
> >seen some of the new Intel chipset motherboards complain EVERY time you 
> >power-up, that for optimal performance you need to install a pair of 
> >modules and require F1 to be pressed before they boot.
> 
> Yes, DDR2 RAM always works in pairs - while one stick is being
> accessed, the other is doing the other half of it cycle, so that they
> overlap and effectively run at double the speed.  It used to be called
> interleaving, when it was done on old mainframes.  So if you only want
> 1 Gibyte of RAM, then you need 2 x 512 Mibyte sticks.  But RAM is dirt
> cheap now - I just build a PC with 2 x 1 Gibyte DDR2 800 MHz for
> $78.81 the pair (A-Data from Ascent).
> 
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Sorry, but you're completely wrong. *If* you install DDR2 in pairs then, *if* your motherboard supports it, then it can be coerced to run in 'dual channel' mode. In this mode, each transfer is twice as 'wide' - 128 bits instead of 64. Just about every mobo under the sun does support it these days. Also, to be absolutely certain, you really ought to buy a matched pair of dimms, as they do need to have extremely similar characteristics.

Steve.
-- 
Steve Holdoway <steve at greengecko.co.nz>