Ram questions

Xtenchen · October 23, 2018

hello my board is a intel DQ67OW

https://ark.intel.com/products/51999/Intel-Desktop-Board-DQ67OW

i currently have 2x4gb sticks of ram but i want to add more

but under that link that shows my mobo specs it says Dual DDR3 1066/1333

altho my board has 4 memory slots. does this mean i can only use 2 sticks at a time and they have to be ddr3 1066 or ddr3 1333

or can i use 4 sticks and what does dual ddr3 mean ?

barondeau · October 23, 2018

dual channel mode, you can use 4 sticks

mariushm · October 23, 2018

You can install up to 4 sticks.

Motherboard supports up to 32 GB of memory, so maximum 8 GB memory sticks

They can be 1066 Mhz or 1333 Mhz. You can buy 1600 Mhz or 1866 Mhz sticks, they'll probably simply run at 1066 or 1333 Mhz, matching your current sticks (so you won't get the benefit of higher frequencies but otherwise the ram will be perfectly fine)

No matter what frequency the memory sticks you'll buy will have, all memory sticks in the pc will run at same frequency. What I mean is that if your current memory sticks run at 1066 Mhz, your new sticks will also run at 1066 mhz even if they're rated for 1333 Mhz or higher.

dual ddr3 means the processor will read and/or write from two memory sticks at same time, so for example if there's a 100 character text that needs to be stored in ram, the cpu will store half of that in one stick, and the other half in the other stick, completing the storing of data in half the time, compared to storing all 100 characters in one memory stick. So if you have pairs of memory sticks the pc can use this "dual ddr3" mode to increase speed when it comes to reading and writing to memory.

vanished · October 23, 2018

You can use all 4 slots, it's just means dual channel mode. Not important for now

As for the speed, you can buy faster sticks and just run them at your lower supported speed. That will work fine. It will probably happen by default in fact. Additionally, you could try to run them at their full speed. It might not work, but it might.