on my motherboard, a8n-sli, can i run 2 sticks of ddr400 pc3200 ram WITH 2 sticks of ddr400 Dual Channel pc3200? or do they need to all be dual channel.

I could be wrong here, but I think when a manufacturer sells their ram as Dual Channel, it means that they were tested together and they work together well. That's why they sell Dual Channel kits together with ram in pairs.

Not all ram is the same. You might see a nice ram that's sold for cheaper as individual, and figure that you'll just buy two of them so you can run in dual channel. However, the timings on each memory module might be different (and each module might even be made of different components).

So, I think you'll be able to install all 4 if you like...just don't expect them to play nice.

Thus, the Dual Channel pair has timings that work together (ie: one doesn't have to relax the timings to accomodate the other).

the ram itself isn't "Dual Channel". It is the motherboard and processor that determines whether you operate in dual channel mode.
As ... describes if the sticks meet the same specifications they should function in dual channel mode regardless of whether they were marketed as a "Dual Channel" kit

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Ah! very informative. so if i have 2 identical sticks in, and a different set of 2 identical sticks, would the mobo realize the 2 sets of dual channel?

and if this question is unanswerable, at least would my system still take advantage of the 2gb ram vs 1gb?

In theory dual channel will work with non-identical pairs, as long as the sticks are matched in the appropriate slots. Your manual should say whether your slots are paired 1/3, 2/4 or 1/2, 3/4

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Your system won't need that much ram my friend. You can believe, I have 2 GB of ram on my PC and my system only uses 512 of it. So far, as you see, 2 gb are not needed unless you are doing hardcore editing, which , of course, requires bunch of ram.

I had actually installed 4 GB of ram, but after Jam's suggestion I sold the other 2.

All right man, you should be very happy with your 1GB of ram.

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