Overclocking with 4 sticks of RAM

[Zinthar]

I'm upgrading to some Super Talent 2.2V 4-4-3-8 DDR2-800 RAM to go with my E6300 + DS3 build.

I have 32-bit Windows Vista, and know that on my computer it can max out at 3.25GB addressable, so I'm planning on upgrading to 3GB of RAM.

Is it a problem to throw 2x1 GB in one set of slots and 2x512MB in the other pair? The RAM should be identical other than the size difference.

Is there a good chance that adding 4 sticks of memory will limit my overclock on this build?

 

[Somniferum]

You can run dual-channel mode with 2 different-sized matched pairs, but you will probably have to drop to 2T command rate. At least, that was my experience with PC3200 DDR -- I guess it's possible DDR2 works differently in this regard. Other than the command rate issue, I had no problems overclocking with 4 sticks vs. a 2-stick configuration.

 

[slmcgra]

You should be fine. Although I wanted to mention that I did have problems doing this with my Intel 975BX2. I couldn't get the system stable with the 4 sticks, so I had to go down to 2GB. But, this was probably some kind of fluke thing. I really wanted that 3GB too! Oh well, better to have something fast and stable.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

May limit the overclock ability, not sure. But I believe to run dual channel both channels have to have the same size, so you would want each channel (same colored slots) to have 1x1gb and 1x512mb

 

[Zinthar]

Alright, I'll give it a try and report back.

I'm hoping the overclock is better than with my Patriot DDR2-667 CL4, which gets the FSB to 400 Mhz stable.