dual ddr ram

my new mobo abit KN8 SLI says dual ddr400 on the box what does this mean and can i not use single ddr400 ram . bit confused here.

also on the mobo it has 4 SATA ports and on the box it says SATA3gb/s whats that mean.

 

Dual probably refers to 'Dual Channel' meaning if you wanted 1GB of RAM for instance you could use 2 x 512MB Modules instead of 1 x 1GB Module - it gives a slight performance boost by using compatible Dual Channel modules.

 

this means "dual channel" RAM, so RAM doesn't need to be added in pairs (although i don't know what "dual channel" means)

3Gb/s means the maximum transfer of the SATA devices (Giga-bytes per second)

 

SATA 3GB/s=SATA 2. It has a burst rate of 3 gigabytes per second, up from the original SATA burst rate of 1.5 GB/s. Note that this is not a sustained speed.

 

Isnt it gigabits?

 

so sata 2 is better than normal sata then and the ram thing is better also.

looks like this mobo should fill all my needs for a while then.

 

The ram is well better then normal. Dual ddr400 can potentially give 6.4gb/s of memory bandwidth, which is the same as a cpu with a 800mhz FSB. Less bottlenecking. Normal ddr400 is half this; 3.2gb/s

 

right cool.

 

Yes it is actually gigabits.