Is my dream triple channel ITX motherboard possible?

[thDel]

Hi, I have a dream for a perfect motherboard. 
it would have a chipset that is capable of quad channel memory and have three dim slots so it could have three Chanel memory.

my dream is a triple channel, x570 10gig, Wi-Fi, am4 board. 
will my dream forever be a dream? 
is it possible for this perfect board to exist and it is possible to have a quad channel memory CPU and chipset connected to three dimm slots for three channel speed.

[Theory_Lukas]

I'm sorry but i don't think that an am4 processor has a quad memory controller

 

[thDel]

1 minute ago, Theory_Lukas said:

I'm sorry but i don't think that an am4 processor has a quad memory controller

 

Nooooooo my dreams are crushed. It is too stupid for it to be TRX then?

[Theory_Lukas]

I don't think there is a trx40 or x399 Threadripper mini itx board but there is a mini itx x299 board from asrock

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, thDel said:

Nooooooo my dreams are crushed. It is too stupid for it to be TRX then?

Why do you even want triple channel? Also no am4 does not do triple channel neither does threadripper

[thDel]

Just now, Theory_Lukas said:

I don't think there is a trx40 or x399 Threadripper mini itx board but there is a mini itx x299 board from asrock

Ok that settles it. My new dream MOBO has the following specs:

trx4

10gig Ethernet 

wifi

tonnes of usb

TB3

3dimms

the big RGB

[thDel]

Just now, jaslion said:

Why do you even want triple channel? Also no am4 does not do triple channel neither does threadripper

Because quad would never fit on an itx board and triple is faster then double (I think). It would be three memory channels of a four channel chip.

[thDel]

1 minute ago, thDel said:

Because quad would never fit on an itx board and triple is faster then double (I think). It would be three memory channels of a four channel chip.

 

[jaslion]

Just now, thDel said:

Because quad would never fit on an itx board and triple is faster then double (I think). It would be three memory channels of a four channel chip.

Not necessarily. Entirely depends on how the cpu handles it and is made. Also there are quad channel boards already. That and amd is dual and quad channel only so is intel as far as I know

 

Also why trx4? Like what are you even gonna do on it? If it's gaming you are so so sooooo far in the wrong place with that platform

[thDel]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Not necessarily. Entirely depends on how the cpu handles it and is made. Also there are quad channel boards already. That and amd is dual and quad channel only so is intel as far as I know

 

Also why trx4? Like what are you even gonna do on it? If it's gaming you are so so sooooo far in the wrong place with that platform

I thought that any quad channel board can do triple just from 3/4 channels being populated.
 

AM4 was what I wanted originally but someone before said that am4 was dual channel only.

[jaslion]

Just now, thDel said:

I thought that any quad channel board can do triple just from 3/4 channels being populated.
 

AM4 was what I wanted originally but someone before said that am4 was dual channel only.

Why are you so focused on the memory channels? It means little for everyday stuff and gaming if you are already in dual channel

[tech.guru]

why you need the extra memory bandwidth and why you need to need it in a small enclosure?

there are already solutions out there for xeon boards in small form factors but its niche.

[thDel]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Why are you so focused on the memory channels? It means little for everyday stuff and gaming if you are already in dual channel

I am just designing me dream MOBO. Surely three is better then two. I still don’t understand why quad channel boards can’t do triple channel.

[thDel]

1 minute ago, tech.guru said:

why you need the extra memory bandwidth and why you need to need it in a small enclosure?

there are already solutions out there for xeon boards in small form factors but its niche.

Same as before I only want the best. Nothing to do with practicality. The dream system would also be for cad and that needs more ram doesn’t it?

 

but really it’s just as a concept and a dream.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

2 minutes ago, thDel said:

I am just designing me dream MOBO. Surely three is better then two. I still don’t understand why quad channel boards can’t do triple channel.

It isnt a mobo thing (anymore, mem controler used to be on mobo). Now it;s up to the cpu memory controler.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, thDel said:

I am just designing me dream MOBO. Surely three is better then two. I still don’t understand why quad channel boards can’t do triple channel.

It's the cpu makers that decide that. The reason triple channel doesn't exist anymore is because quad is now a more viable alternative. Triple channel was a thing because simply put there was no more space on the boards back then and 6 slots was the best they could do.  Nowadays there is the physical space for it so no cpu maker implements support for it because it is no longer needed as there is enough space for more ram slots.

 

You can dream all you want but you are only getting what is possible/supported

[thDel]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

It isnt a mobo thing (anymore, mem controler used to be on mobo). Now it;s up to the cpu memory controler.

Ok thanks, I thought it was chipset but that makes no sense. But slapping three dimm slots on a theoretical quad channel cpu, would it be triple channel speed?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 minute ago, thDel said:

Ok thanks, I thought it was chipset but that makes no sense. But slapping three dimm slots on a theoretical quad channel cpu, would it be triple channel speed?

yea, but it would have 4 slots, so theres no point to only using 3.

[tech.guru]

8 minutes ago, thDel said:

Same as before I only want the best. Nothing to do with practicality. The dream system would also be for cad and that needs more ram doesn’t it?

 

but really it’s just as a concept and a dream.

not just memory but the type of memory....

workstations typically want not just performance but reliability

 

this includes things like.

      ecc memory to help to help detect and prevent memory errors

      raid to help prevent downtime from drive failures

      workstation gpus, again with gpu ecc memory to help detect and prevent memory errors

 

performance is important... but its not everything in the professional space.

 

some things like ECC which is more costly and hurt performance is generally preferred

because it helps improve reliability and avoid data corruption

 

consumer versus the server or workstation space is significantly different

please consider what your real wants and needs are trying to accomplish.

[thDel]

Just now, jaslion said:

It's the cpu makers that decide that. The reason triple channel doesn't exist anymore is because quad is now a more viable alternative. Triple channel was a thing because simply put there was no more space on the boards back then and 6 slots was the best they could do.  Nowadays there is the physical space for it so no cpu maker implements support for it because it is no longer needed as there is enough space for more ram slots.

 

You can dream all you want but you are only getting what is possible/supported

So the image above where there is triple channel on a quad channel MOBO is impossible? I was under the impression that having three dimms in a quad channel board would be three channel. If someone put three slots on an itx motherboard anyway for the capacity not the bandwidth, would it work? Would it be single or dual channel?

[thDel]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

yea, but it would have 4 slots, so theres no point to only using 3.

In an itx motherboard. 4 wouldn’t fit

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 minute ago, thDel said:

In an itx motherboard. 4 wouldn’t fit

That x299 up there had 4

[thDel]

2 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

That x299 up there had 4

Yeah it’s a concept for a dream motherboard that doesn’t yet exist.

itx am4 triple channel memory

my question is is it possible

[Kilrah]

TRX40 seems to support running either in single, dual or quad but not triple based on the memory configurations you find in motherboard manuals.

 

[mariushm]

6 minutes ago, thDel said:

 

 

Processors that support QUAD channel  also do this interleaving thing but with 4 memory channels, and therefore 4 memory sticks. So it's even better. 

 

it seems like you're stuck with this triple channel speed, when it fact it's nothing special.  Processors (because the memory controller is inside the processor) also do it with dual channel. 

 

There's also the fancy Threadripper Pro processors which have EIGHT channels, each with one memory stick : https://www.pcworld.com/article/3566078/amd-threadripper-pro-has-64-cores-128-pcie-lanes-and-8-channel-memory-support.html

 

Even more - and that screenshot doesn't tell you - is that there's also the concept of DUAL RANK memory sticks, which do something similar. The memory controller can issue some commands to ONE HALF of the memory stick and while that half prepares data (reads it from memory chips and makes it ready to be pushed through the wires to the CPU), the processor actually transfers data from the other half of the memory stick. 

 

 

In REAL WORLD, the benefits of that interleaving and reduction of latency is super small, basically you wouldn't notice it. 

 

In ITX boards, you're limited to 2 memory sticks because PHYSICALLY there's no room on the motherboard for more.  It may LOOK like there's not, but wherever it looks like there's space for some, imagine there's lots of wires going all over the place through the circuit board, in multiple layers. 

In order to put memory slots, there has to be unused areas for the metal pins inside the ram slots to go through and those will block the path of various wires inside the motherboard. 

Some motherboards solve this problem by using laptop style SO-DIMM sticks instead of the long memory slots, but those bring their own complexity, it's not a solution.