Can someone explain RAM pairing, inserting more ram?

[Sean Dempsey]

What are the requirments for the Mac Pro? I just bought mine, and its shipping with two 512 sticks.

I am ordering two 2 gig sticks from crucial.

With the ram pairing, and the 2 risers, how is the proper way and order to install this ram? Do both risers need to have ram in them? 2 sticks in top, 2 sticks in bottom?

And, if I decide to add ram past my 5gigs (as above), does the ram need to be added 2 sticks at a time? and, do the risers need to be balanced with eachother?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Schroedinger]

This has been covered extensively in the forums already, but I'll give you a brief answer.

The Mac Pro uses 4 channels for ram, so you'll want to put the 2 gig sticks in the first two slots on the top riser, then put the two 512s in the first two slots on the bottom riser. Any more ram would have to come in pairs, first filling the top riser, and then filling the bottom riser.

Some people make a big deal about matching pairs to get maximum quad channel benefits but I don't think it makes a huge difference. The old rule still holds, more RAM is better.

But do take the time to search the forums for this issue as it has been discussed in detail and there is more useful info out there.