I bought a i7 2600K and it says dual channel memory... My mobo supports 4 sticks... So does my CPU only support 2 sticks??? Does a channel mean 2 sticks in the off colored slots or does it mean just 1 stick? lol I am a new builder and I have held off buying RAM for this reason. I'm at the point where this is all I need to finish my Computer So help me out? lol
you can run 4 sticks in dual channel
Each channel of memory can have two RAM sticks - usually labelled A and B slots, for example my BIOS labels my 4 ram sticks as a1, b1, a2, b2
You can use all 4 ram slots - they will work in pairs of two.
Quad channel memory has 4 channels, so 8 ram slots would be avaliable, labelled a1, b1, a2, b2, a3, b3
Dual Channel Memory is just the type of ram, its the most common type of memory. You should be able to check how much memory your motherboard supports on the box then purchase the correct ammount for your PC. For example if your motherboard supports 12gb of memory and has 4 slots, grab 3 4gb sticks.
Just make sure you don't buy more then your motherboard supports. Its a bit of a waste since by the time you get a new motherboard your ram won't even be worth keeping.
I have a Maximus V Extreme by Asus and Republic of Gamers I think I read that it supports 32GB
Technically you can run 1, 2, 3, or 4 sticks.. just have to look at the manual to see where each stick has to go specifically. For normal routines however dual channel memory is recommend (so 2 sticks or 4 sticks)
in that case any DDR3 memory should work in your system, i would reccomend you just go ahead and memory cap your motherboard in that case. You can grab a 32gb kit off newegg, frys or your local IT shop, the 2133MHz Gskill RipjawsZ kit is a nice kit from experience, well priced to. The Kingston Beast is great to. But just shop around, you may be able to get some one sale. You can also go for less memory if you want, but i would reccomend going with 8gb sticks just so if you don't want to memory cap now you can cap your motherboard out later.