Simple Hardware question's on Ram and its support.

[avengerevenge]

hello everyone, i am really confused with some question's, i am not well with the pc hardware.

Actually i have a intel motherboard DG41RQ which has two ram slots,
here's the link http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/dg41rq/dg41rq-overview.htm
it says that it supports, 8GBn ram memory, what does this mean, does it support 8gb for a single slot(i.e 16 gb for both the slots)?
or only 8gb for both(i.e 4 gb for a single slot). pls anyone clear my doubt,

my next doubt is that i have only 2 GB ram, i want to upgrade it, i am thinking of buying another 4 gb ram, if i buy i will have one 2 gb and another 4 gb rams, can i use two different memory ram's (i.e one will be 2gb in first slot and another will be 4gb in second slotin my pc), i am not sure about this,but i heard that we cannot use two different memory ram's(my friend said that we must use same memory ram's if u have 4 gb in one slot, another should also be 4gb). now if i buy 4 gb i will have two different memory rams. pls clear my doubt.

[edDV]

Kingston, Crucial and other memory manufacturers will list specific memory part numbers for the product.

Here is Kingston
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=55071&mfr=Intel&...submit1=Search

Best performance results from a matched pair 2x 4GB = 8GB

[redwudz]

Mixing RAM sizes and specifications, and sometimes brands, can cause problems. What edDV said is the safest method. And a 32bit operating system can't address more than about 4GB of RAM, so any extra would be wasted. A 64bit OS can access 6GB, 8GB or more RAM. If you have a 32bit OS, then two 2GB modules may be the best choice. If you can find a matching RAM module to your existing one, then that should work.

The OS used also has a bearing on this. If you are running XP 32bit, 2GB RAM should be sufficient. If you are running Vista or W7, 32bit, they work better with 4GB RAM.

Usually when the motherboard specifications say that it supports 8GB RAM, then that is the maximum the motherboard can address, no matter what the combination of modules.