CompTIA A+ Exam 220-1101: RAM Channel Configuration After Upgrade

RAM Channel Configuration

Question

A customer has two 8GB sticks of 2400-speed DDR4 installed in slots 1 and 2 of a computer and wants to add more RAM.

The customer purchases two additional 4GB sticks of 3200-speed DDR4 and installs then in slots 3 and 4

While installing the RAM into the board, the user notices the board has 'quad channel' etched near the RAM slots.

Which of the following can be said about the user's channel configuration after upgrading the RAM?

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

D.

The customer's computer has a total of four RAM slots, and currently has two 8GB sticks of 2400-speed DDR4 installed in slots 1 and 2. The customer wants to add more RAM and purchases two additional 4GB sticks of 3200-speed DDR4 to install in slots 3 and 4.

When upgrading the RAM, it's important to consider the maximum speed and capacity supported by the motherboard, as well as the number of channels available.

In this case, the customer's motherboard has quad-channel memory architecture, which means that it can support up to four channels of RAM. Each channel consists of one or more memory modules, and the more channels that are used, the higher the potential bandwidth between the memory and the CPU.

However, the customer's current configuration only has two RAM modules installed in slots 1 and 2, which means that the computer is currently only utilizing one channel. The two new 4GB sticks that the customer purchased are installed in slots 3 and 4, which means that they will be on a separate channel from the original two sticks.

It's worth noting that when mixing different speed and capacity RAM modules, the motherboard will typically run all of the modules at the speed of the slowest module. In this case, the 3200-speed RAM will run at 2400-speed to match the speed of the existing RAM.

Therefore, the correct answer is (B) the computer is utilizing two channels. While the motherboard has the potential to use up to four channels, the current configuration only has two channels in use.