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16gb Ram (4x4) dual channel or quad channel? What’s the difference?


David1

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This is extremely complicated but I'll try to explain it as best I can.

 

To answer your first question, Quad channel vs. Dual channel is basically this, with dual channel, it splits the data between two individual but still joined channels, this means that you effectively get close to double the bandwidth or speed of single channel RAM, Quad channel is the data split between four independent channels, so you get theoretically four times the bandwidth or speed.

 

Quad channel is Intels X79 series chipsets, and is there purely for the highest performance possible. Dual channel is for everything else, which is P55, P67, H67, Z68, Z77 and so on.

 

Now you may be thinking, ah well, why do dual channel motherboards have four slots for RAM? Well on a dual channel board each channel can support 2 sticks of RAM, but if you install two sticks of RAM on the same channel, you're only working at single channel speeds, so if you have two sticks of RAM, install them on the separate channels to enable dual channel mode and get the benefits of the extra speed.

 

Quad channel has four channels, and each supports up to two sticks of RAM each, and the same is true for Quad channel as for dual channel, which is to install onto separate channels if you want quad channel.

 

None of the above really affects what RAM you can get, so you can buy Quad channel ram for a dual channel board as long as it's supported, but there may be issues with dual channel RAM being used on Quad channel boards, so be wary of that.

 

You're using a Dual channel board, so if you want the max amount of RAM supported by your motherboard, buy a set of 4 sticks of RAM, either dual or Quad channel, but make sure that it's part of a complete set of RAM to save on potential problems, and if you buy Quad channel, make sure that your motherboard supports it.

 

SDRAM is the technology behind RAM, all RAM sold today for the home user is SDRAM, and all this means is how the black chips on the RAM are designed, it isn't really something you should worry about.

 

What matters to you as a buyer is the DDR3 part, all new motherboards are now DDR3 only, and DDR3 stands for Double Data Rate version 3, this means that for every clock cycle that happens which is measured in Hertz there is 2 bits of data sent to and from the RAM. So at 800MHz there is effectively 1600MHz worth of data being sent.

 

DIMM stands for Dual Inline Memory Module, and is basically just the technical name given to how the RAM sticks are laid out, they're laid out in two Modules that are in a line with each other, which ties back to the Dual channel aspect where there is two sticks per channel.

 

I know it's a lot to take in, but I hope that it answers your questions, there's so much more than I said here, and a lot of stuff I deliberately missed out in order to not confuse you, if you want to know more, your best bet is to take a look on Wikipedia at all the technical info, but be warned that most of it will go over your head and will confuse you something rotten xD

 

And finally, if I was you, I'd either get 4x4GB modules of RAM, of at least 1600MHz speed, or if you can stretch your budget that far get 4x8GB at 1600MHz speed, but don't get 2x8GB as you do not want to mix different sets of RAM later on down the line, because the problems it causes are the number 1 cause of complaints in the memory section here xD

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Just to add to this, dual, quad , triple single channel is a function of the MB and not the memory. And why you can insert one module for single channel on a dual channel MB.

 

A MB that supports triple channel memory can be run in single ,dual and triple channel depending on the slot you put the modules in.

 

Same goes for a quad MB. You can run single, dual, and quad channel configurations depending on what slot the modules are placed in the mb

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