Dual Channel RAM on a Triple Channel Motherboard

[Draciot]

I'm building a new PC and I've hit a small hump.

32-bit OS' can't use more than 4GB of RAM, I don't want to use 64-bit (well, I do, but not enough programs support it); so it's a waste to buy a set of Triple Channel RAM.

I'm looking at buying the following:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145200


What I need to know is if the memory and motherboard will work together, since I wouldn't be using all three channels. I know you can put a single stick of ram into a dual channel motherboard, so it stands to reason you could put two sticks into a triple channel board, but I just want to make sure before I bought anything.

 

[Princemercury]

From what I've studied 4 months ago about the new trichannel memory controllers, they work best with 3 or 6 sticks of memory. 2 or 4, while possible will decrease memory throughput, it has to do with something internally on the i7 controller.

So if you stick 2 sticks of PC3 12800 you might be better off using 3x1 GB at 10600. I think you should get a 3gb (1x3) kit to take full advantage of i7's tri channel controller. It's only 512MB less than your 4gb setup on a 32bit system but you'll gain maximum possible speed.

 

[Princemercury]

Um, reading your question again the AsusP6T MB doesn't support dual channel (on paper anyway). Everything above still stands.

 

[Bajaratt]

What programs do you need that don't run in 64-bit? The only thing I've run across is adobe flash doesn't support 64-bit yet, but everything else has worked just fine.

 

[Draciot]

What programs do you need that don't run in 64-bit? The only thing I've run across is adobe flash doesn't support 64-bit yet, but everything else has worked just fine.

When I tried 64-bit once before, I couldn't even find a good firewall/anti-virus. Granted that was about two years ago. If you know of a good list of programs to setup a working 64-bit system, I'd be very interested in taking a look.

As for the RAM, I downgraded a little bit and went with a Core 2 Quad with Dual Channel instead of an i7 and Triple.

 

[Bajaratt]

I don't have a list, but I've installed all of my normal programs that I'd used on my 32-bit computer on my new 64-bit one(minus adobe flash). They all either worked, or when I downloaded them, there was a 64-bit version I could get. 2 years ago, 64-bit hardware/software was much more new and not as abundant, but now it's really uncommon to not support 64-bit.

 

[Draciot]

I'll check around then.