Lenovo support lacking when it comes to dual channel memory

Here's something to be aware of when purchasing desktops from Lenovo, or from anywhere really.

Most modern motherboards and chipsets have what is called dual channel memory architecture.

Basically, this means that the memory bus can read from two sticks of memory at once.

Problem is that (at least as far as I know) both sticks have to be of same size and same speed. In fact it's best to purchase identical pairs of memory sticks (usually DDR2 SDRAM DIMM modules these days) for modern desktops.

Some laptops might have the same feature, but I'm not aware if they do or don't.

You'd think that computer makers, in general, would tell their customers about this in their support documentation, but I could not find this information in regards to the Lenovo (formerly IBM) Thinkcenter M55P (8811 series in this particular case) desktops.

I actually had to go to Intel's website to look up the features of the Q965 chipset which is used in these desktops to make sure that I was right in my assumption that these systems, like most modern systems, do in fact have the dual channel memory feature.

They don't even make any mention of this in their guide on installing memory on the motherboard.

Even though the memory slots on the motherboard are colored black for one channel and green for the other, which should suggest to the individual installing memory to install the pair of chips in the same colored slots. The coloring of slots is different between different makes/models of motherboards by the way, but it does seem that in most cases you should put memory in the first and second slots for the first pair and 3rd and 4th slots for 2nd pair.

Anyhow, there you have it. Big thing to keep in mind is that memory for modern systems should be purchased and installed in similar (identical is preferred) pairs.