How should I add more ram?

[mike_sanfil]

I currently have 2x256mb of Geil ram in my desktop system. I want to add at least another 512 total, but i am not sure how to do it. I have an Asus P4P800 so i have 2 ram slots open, but I was once told that using all 4 dimms can be bad. Should i sell my 2 sticks of geil and get 2 more 512 sticks?? Or just add another 2 sticks of 256??

thanks

[JacobM5727]

your manual should say how to add the ram, as far as i know, using all four slots would be fine ~ unless the total goes over the ram limit for the board, in which case i dunno what would happen
it would probably be cheaper to use 512 sticks anyway ~ that would possibly increase performance as well

[mike_sanfil]

i was just wondering, because someone once told me that using all 4 dimms would like create a bottleneck making it slower. I may have no idea what i am talking about, but that is why i am posting.

[John Prophet]

it wont make a bottleneck.

They are probably referring to the fact that not ALL boards come with 4 dimm slots because it IS a little harder to make a board that will run stable with 4 dimms installed. When they test boards with 4 dimm slots they sometimes make a point of mentioning that it "s stable with 4 dimms installed" to show how stable the board is.

They put those 4 dimm slots there for a reason so dont be scared of using them.

How much ram are you wanting to end up with??

I would just add a 512 and keep my 2 256's....which would give you 1024...a gracious plenty.

[mike_sanfil]

thanks for your help!

[demon_wolf]

I agree with John,

Just keep the 2 256's and add a 512.

[nukes]

All you need to do is shift one of the 256mb sticks from dimm0 to dimm2, then install the 512 into dimm0.

[rourkchris]

I think the problem has been that while many boards with 4 DIMM slots have only supported 6 banks of memory. Dual sided RAM is 2 banks per DIMM. That renders the 4th DIMM useless unless single sided RAM is used. That's my understanding anyway. Asus' manual should explain if that's a problem with your particular board. Looking quickly at the Asus site your board supports up to 4GB of RAM in dual channel. Get another pair of 256MB of the same Geil RAM you're using now and you should be all right. Looks to support 8 banks of RAM.

[mike_sanfil]

nukes, what you said doesn't make any sense to me. How would that help me?? Either way if i add another stick of 512, I wont' be able to dual channel will I??