4 Ram Slots Question

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

Alright, here's a great question for the Xisto community and I hope you guys can answer this.My motherboard has 4 RAM slots, on the motherboard markings, RAM0 and RAM1 are grouped as DIMM1; while RAM2 and RAM3 are grouped as DIMM2. Does this mean that DIMM1 is its own independent speed bank with its own path to the processor and DIMM2 has its own path as well?I ask this because I bought DDR2-667 instead of DDR2-800 because 667s were cheaper than 800s last month, now they are almost the same price. I'm planning to buy 2 1GB DDR2-800s to make my system have a total of 4GB of RAM. Will the 667s slow down the 800s even if each of them are on different DIMMs?xboxrulz

[turbopowerdmaxsteel 0]

I am afraid it will. Even in Dual Channel mode, the motherboard will run all memory modules at the speed of the slowest module. You could think for the future and still buy the 800s. But, I have heard some boards have compatibility issues with certain brands or models of modules running at different speeds. Also, its the size of the RAMs that primarily determine the speed of the system. I am sure you know that but jumping to a higher bus speed always is more satisfying (Certainly does to me).Seriously though, you should look at compatibility. I ran into some problems myself when I got confused by Intel's site saying 915g boards support both DDR and DDR2 RAMs. So, I got myself a 1GB 666 MHz (it was mentioned that the boards wouldn't support modules of higher speeds). It was only when I couldn't fit the new module into the slot that I started looking in the board manual. There I found out that 915s had two models one which worked on DDR and the other on DDR2. My first board supported both SD RAM and DDR RAM. So, I assumed that this one would allow both versions of DDR.After that I got into a fight with the salesman blaming who finally replaced it following my acceptance of the mistake.

[wutske 0]

Dual channel or not, different banks or not, all your memory modules have to run at the same speed because DDR-SDRAM is a synchronous system (Double Data Rate - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory). What you could try is to overclock the 667s to 800, tough I doubt it'll reach 800mhz without adding a lot of voltage to your memory.The best thing is to get the 800s and run them at 667, the difference in speed is hardly noticable.

[Doc.h0llyw00d 0]

Just furthering with what wutske said, the difference you will notice is minimal at greatest.However, do check to make sure there's no specific ordering of chips on your board, I know some MoBo require that the lower speed RAM be in the primary slot, etc, to ensure speed compatibility.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

Alright, thanks for the reply. The answers are very informative.

[wutske 0]

Also, make sure you don't install 4 double sided memory modules, 9 chances out of 10 that it won't work.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

I usually buy single sided ones anyways. They are a lot cheaper.