Coloured RAM channels

[ICIT2LOL]

Now a very basic query - when I have four RAM slots and they are in two colours say config 1 red-black / red-black or config 2 red - red / black - black and I only have two sticks of identical RAM to put in - do I put both sticks in the same colour slots regardless of the slot configuration?

I am only asking as I was under the impression that the same colour was to be used and some school machines I have here have the two sticks in different coloured slots. The machines were brought to me for tidying up -clogged with dust etc and they have been struggling all day with the boot and going from app to app.

So I threw in two sticks into the empty slots from one of the other machines and noticed an immediate difference. Would this be due purely to more RAM or that the slots are now configured correctly or both?

Have Googled this but am going round the houses - sorry just want to be doing the right thing

Example in pic which shows marking s for DIMM numbers.

 

[brianzion]

hope this helps go to the 4.00 mins section on video

 

[brianzion]

here is a very good program for ram rammon by passmark link >>> PassMark RAMMon - Identify RAM type, speed & memory timings

RAMMon
is an easy to use Windows based application that allows users to quickly retrieve the Serial Presence Detect (SPD) data from their RAM modules. It will allow users to identify a multitude of attributes, of which, includes the manufacturer, the clockspeed and other data of their DDR2, DDR3, XMP and EPP memory devices and even some older memory types. It uses SysInfo DLL SDK to gather the SPD attributes from RAM devices. This information provides a snapshot of the available data for each RAM module installed on the system.

 

[alphanumeric]

It's my understanding that the colors denote channels. Putting two identical modules in the same colored slots (channel) will let you use dual channel mode. They should still work if you split them up, you just won't get dual channel mode. The only way to be really sure would be to download the manual for that motherboard and see what it says.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Now a very basic query - when I have four RAM slots and they are in two colours say config 1 red-black / red-black or config 2 red - red / black - black and I only have two sticks of identical RAM to put in - do I put both sticks in the same colour slots regardless of the slot configuration?

I am only asking as I was under the impression that the same colour was to be used and some school machines I have here have the two sticks in different coloured slots. The machines were brought to me for tidying up -clogged with dust etc and they have been struggling all day with the boot and going from app to app.

So I threw in two sticks into the empty slots from one of the other machines and noticed an immediate difference. Would this be due purely to more RAM or that the slots are now configured correctly or both?

In my experience, the same color indicates the same RAM channel, but I am not sure that is universal across all brands.

So--installing to slots of the same color would allow the RAM to run in the preferred dual channel mode.

If you have a 4 slot board and two sticks were installed to different colored slots, the RAM would work, but would not be running in dual channel mode. But if you then installed 2 more sticks in the remaining 2 slots, you would then be in dual channel because each colored pair would then be fully occupied.

The improvement you see would be mostly due to simply having more RAM, rather than the change from single channel to dual channel.

At least that's how I think it works. But as I said, I'm not sure how universal that color-coding is.

 

[fseal]

Agree with Ignatz, there seems to be no real standard. I would look up the information in the manual for your motherboard if you have one or find it on the web. Only it will "know" for sure what the best arrangement of slot use for only 2 sticks would be...

 

[brianzion]

Paired memory chips should go in slots of same color.

If the motherboard has two pairs of differently colored DIMM sockets (the colors indicate which bank they belong to, bank 0 or bank 1), then one can place a matched pair of memory modules in bank 0, but a different-capacity pair of modules in bank 1, as long as they are of the same speed. Using this scheme, a pair of 1 GB memory modules in bank 0 and a pair of matched 512 MB modules in bank 1 would be acceptable for dual-channel operation

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks fellas I have just poured over the Lenovo site/s and from what I can make out from the maintenance info the colours are like you say in their respective banks so it looks like whoever put these machines together put the two sticks in different channels.
Now as these are gov property perhaps they had a reason but I can't for the life of me think what that could be. Thats why I asked just in case one of you cleverer folks than myself knew of a reason.

Anyway I have just about finished cleaning these machines up and cloned them all to the best drive set up and will try and find out if using the same coloured slots for the two sticks makes any difference to the boot time - 2:30 mins before (old config of RAM) . The problem I am also guessing is that they all only had that 512MB RAM on board and loads of clutter anyway.

Just another seven machines to go
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/arti...e-and-Quad-Channel-Memory-Architectures/133/5
Have found this since and again confused

Just as a by the by I have one of these machines myself and with 4GB and a 3.2Ghz in - running 7 the things really fast for an old but well made machine.

 

[Dwarf]

The best thing to do would be to check the motherboard manual for the actual physical location of the relevant memory slots for each channel and banks within the channels. Although many boards with 4 or more slots colour code them, there is no hard fast rule about this, and some group them in banks, whereas others do so in channels. It is also possible that the wrong coloured slots are inserted during manufacture (unlikely, but possible).

 

[Comp Cmndo]

...Now as these are gov property perhaps they had a reason but I can't for the life of me think what that could be. Thats why I asked just in case one of you cleverer folks than myself knew of a reason...

They just didn't know the colors have a reason for being or they were color-blind. Matching RAM goes into matching color slots, unless the RAM is not matched pairs. In earlier times, slots were populated in order A thru D (or 1 thru 4, or 0 thru 3), later, order did not matter, then dual-channel matched pairs. Sometimes the pairs are adjacent, sometimes interleaved. Look at the colors & the markings to be sure.

Things change & governments are the slowest to accept or implement change procedures.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

OK Now have poured over the maintenance manual for the M51 - sorry typed M55 first up - and apart from how to install RAM it does not say what colour to use with what colour.

In the pic I have circled the slots numbering system the north bridge and CPU to give you some perspective of what I am seeing the locality of the RAM to the CPU etc .

Now common sense tells me that the BLACK slots are DIMM 1+2 and YELLOW the DIMM 3+4.

Now the original installer either put one stick in DIMM 1 and one in DIMM 3 and I suspect as everyone is saying that he was either colour blind, did it in a rush, didn't know what he / she was doing OR that is how they are meant to go.

I suppose there is only one way to find out and that is to put a stick in DIMMS 1+2 and see what happens. If the thing works ok then I shall have to redo the other machines I have done in the past as they are all 1 stick black and 1 stick yellow.

If what I am reading in Hardwaresecrets site is anything to go by the sticks will be out of whack with each other - except there is a comment on page five -http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Dual-Triple-and-Quad-Channel-Memory-Architectures/133/5 - that is still making it a tad ambiguous. However the main article would account of the lack of speed mind you there is only 512MB per machine which really lets down what is quite a decent built machine as I mentioned before one I scored for my troubles has 4GB in it and flies.

 

[brianzion]

have a read of this here it may help explain http://goo.gl/a012s

 

[ReviverSoft]

If the two RAM sticks are similar in specs, they go into the slots of the same color.

 

[profdlp]

...Although many boards with 4 or more slots colour code them, there is no hard fast rule about this...

Quite true.

My old MSI Socket 939 board had colored slots and after I'd had it a month they sent a notice that even the manual had it wrong. The best thing is to look for the "Dual-Channel" notice during POST. If your board doesn't tell you that you can check it with something like CPUID. Just navigate to the "Memory" tab and make sure it says "Dual".

 

[carwiz]

I've got one of those old machines. I have the MT-M 8187. This is straight from the manual. You'll want to use slot 1 and 3 for dual channel memory.