hi guys! i would like to know if i can combine three differend rams in my motherdoard, which have two channels (A & B) with two slots each! now i have two ddr2 512mb rams each on the first slot of the two channels. I was thinking to buy one 2gb ram and one 1gb and place them in the empty slots. that would make the first channel to be populated with two rams one 512, one 2gb and the other channel one 512 one 1gb (all together 4gb ram). is it possible? if not can i use the 512 rams i allready have in the first channel and one 2gb in the other channel or is it a must the channels to have the same amount of bites to wokr properly? thanks in advance!!
You can use any combinantion as long as its the correct type of ram for your motherboard. but there are a couple of possible disadvantages, If your motherboard supports dual channel ram (your ram slots are two different colors) you currently have one dual channel kit installed, which means you have two memory pipelines to your cpu. If you put an unmatched pair in the other two slots, your motherboard will detect that and switch to single channel mode (one memory pipeline to your cpu). Secondly, no mater if its single or dual channel it will scale back all of the modules to the speed of the slowest module you have installed. So in conclusion, step one is to check to see if your motherboard supports dual channel. If it does, I would recomend putting a matched pair in your second channel. this doesnt have to be matched to the two 512 modules you already have installed. i.e. matched pair one 2x 512 mb, Matched pair two 2x 1gb. will work fine and still allow your motherboard to operate in dual channel mode. Step 2 is to determine what speed your current ram is. for instance, if your current ram is ddr2 800, and you install a set of ddr2 667 for channel two. it will slow all of your modules to 667. you should be able to get a definitive answer for this in your motherboard manual, or by looking up your model numbers online. for both your motherboard and your current ram.
