stupid dual channel question

ok, its a stupid question, but I want to make sure.
I currently have 1gb (2 x 512) installed, and I have another 512mb (2 x 256) collecting dust on a shelf. Can I add the 2 x 256 and still retain dual channel? for a total of 1.5gb?

Thanks

Stoopid reply (without research) thought the K8N had only 3 memory slots.

Yes, but with limitations.

Winchester core supports 4 single-sided DIMMs @ 400MHz/2T but has to drop to 166MHz for double-sided DIMMs. Not sure what happens with a mixture.

K8N Neo does, but K8N Neo2 has 4.

Make sure you use the correct slots or it will not work.

Any gain you may see from the extra RAM will be completely negated by the need to run the memory much slower, so it’s not a good idea.

Couldn’t hurt to play around with memtest a bit if you’re really wanting to use that memory. I think you’d be ahead of the game if you just ebayed the lot and bought 2 1GB sticks if you are truly in need of RAM.

Answer = yes

but you may find that the neo turns its nose up at it esp if it see the spd data
on the dimms being different or the density of the dimms as Mulda says single or
double sided dictating a reduction in speed.

You can fool it but tbh your better off with a full set of same spec dimms.

best option is balanced banks

so say 1gb slot 1 & 256 slot 2 of the 1st channel
1gb slot 3 & 256 slot 4 of the second channel.

And potentially except DDR 333 spec speeds

you may find that you might have to install 1st set of dimms, boot the machine
drop the speed turn off and insert second set.

i.e. If you install both to start the machine may refuse to boot until you boot
with one set and reduce the speed.

I’m not a fan of the Neo’s memory handling capabilities but then again
I can say the same for every other MSI board i’ve had / modded.

Thanks for the replys…
I had a feeling that it would work with limitations…

I currently run my memory with a DDR333 divider, with my FSB (for lack of a better term) at 250, my memory runs at 208mhz

My main worry was the 1T and 2T command rates, if I have to run @ 2T, then I wont do it, since the performance hit is too much and I would negate the extra memory, as Storm said.

Most likely, I will just keep the 1GB for now, since I dont want to run too many tests, since Im so lazy.

Thanks again…

memtest86 will tell you what the memory will be stable at.