Is 3GB dual channel on Dell Inspiron laptop?

In the USA and Canada and possibly elsewhere, Dell Inspiron 1520's are now available with 3 GB of RAM as an option, which is an interesting option for reducing hard disc access in Vista 32.

The USA configurator says that 1, 2, 3 and 4 GB are all dual channel
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWKA2&s=dhs
while the Canadian configurator says 1, 2 and 4GB are "dual channel" and "2 dimm" but does not say this for 3 GB.
http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ca&CS=cadhs1&l=en&OC=N15202V_R_E

A USA chat rep says that the 3 GB consists of 1.5+1.5 GB (which is very unlikely) while a Canadian chat rep says that it is 1+1+1+0, which is impossible since the 1520 has only two SoDIMM's

I assume the true configuration would be 1+2 GB (can someone confirm this?) So my questions is, could that configuration work as dual-channel? And does it matter?

Thanks in advance,
Fuzzy

 

It has to be 1 + 2.

 

nope, 1+2 is not dual channel
dual channel is two sticks of the same size

idk if it really matters, maybe someone else here knows

 

it's dual channel with new 965 chip set, but only 2G working in dual channel, the rest 1G is single channel.

 

This guy has a nice dual channel ram guide; should tell you everything you need to know:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167472

 

First, it's usually less expensive to buy the RAM aftermarket (such as from newegg.com) and install it yourself.

Secondly, I think if you order 3 gb, you'll get a configuration of 1x2gb + 1x1gb. they made a mistake calling the 3 gb option "dual channel". Although there is something called "asynchronous dual-channel", which doesn't require the same size RAM sticks... but you don't get the full benefit of synchronous dual-channel either.

Thirdly, dual-channel doesn't matter that much in real life. It takes about 100 times as long to access the hard disk as it does to access RAM, so saving accesses to the hard disk is beneficial, and any details about the RAM speed is much less important. For normal use, 2 gb is enough, but if you do really heavy multitasking or heavily use RAM-hungry apps such as Photoshop, you could benefit from 3 gb.

 

This is just plain wrong. 'Dual channel' refers to using the full bandwidth of both memory slots at the same time, hence dual CHANNEL. It requires 2 identical sticks, so as you said, 2x512, 2x1GB, or 2x2GB are the only configurations that are going to work.

Surprising how confusing this is for a number of otherwise knowledgeable people

 

I don’t know whether vostro1400user is right about how it works, or whether notebook chipsets actually support Asynchronous Dual channel or not, BUT THERE IS something called Asynchronous Dual channel / Flex mode which DOES NOT require identical memory sizes.
Ref : Intel Single / Dual / Flex Memory Modes.

Having said that, I don't think this has anything to do with Asynchronous Dual channel mode, most likely just a typo. If you click Help me choose link, they only talk about 1,2 and 4GB in dual channel mode and they also say Dual-Channel memory requires 2 each of the same capacity memory DIMMs. Therefore I think its safe to assume that DELL made a mistake.

 

i tested 1G+512M with CPUZ saying dual channel in santa rosa platform while CPUZ indicating single channel in AMD platform.