NEED ADVICE ON memory

[siris187srh]

hi im looking to upgrade my rigs ram right now. but i cant decide to go with 2 x8gig cards or getting 4 x4gig cards both will be at the 2133hz im running amd 8350 processor on a crosshair formula z board 2 gtx770sli, water cooled.

basically wawnt to know if i should go with a 2 card or 4 card set up which is the the better way to go. i do some O.C. but mainly
gaming any advise will help thank you

[Chino]

Welcome to the ROG forums, siris187srh.

Grab a 2 x 8GB kit. It puts less stress on the CPU's IMC.

[siris187srh]

awesome thank you very much
i will do just that

[Antronman]

It depends. If your IMC would be capable of 4x4, I would buy that because more slots filled looks cooler.

[siris187srh]

im sorry man but im so stealing you next generation quote its awesome but my IMC can support 4 slots and it works just fine with four. too but im buying the ram right now so 😄 im getting the four and ill test out both sets. if anything i got a spare set for my next rig right

[kkn]

either one set of 16 or one kit of 32. do not mix on intel.

[jab383]

In another thread around here somewhere, WhitePaw reported that he tried several mixes of DRAM with the 4770K. The important result is that it worked better with all 4 sockets occupied.

I have to agree with that. Several times, I have tried the faster of my two pair of DRAM sticks -- the Mushkin. I get easier overclocking and timings much tighter than the XMP when all 4 DIMMs are installed -- even though the Corsair is rated slower in SPD and XMP.

The above makes two points about the Haswell IMC:
It really likes 4 DIMMs
It works better than previous generations to the point that mixes of DIMM kit are much less important.

Jeff

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Chino is right...dual channel will put less stress on CPU and should give better results if you want to tweak timings or OC. But there is a big range of CPU IMCs out there so you never know...Higher density modules put more stress than lower density ones so 4x4 vs 2x8 might favour 4x4 sometimes...depends on RAM IMC etc., what you are doing... YMMV.

Whatever you decide kkn is right; get a single kit...many get away with running mixed kits...many don't and it is not supported. Running two kits might mean you have to lower frequency relax timings all of which makes a mockery of buying a nice kit in the first place...

[Antronman]

Arne Saknussemm wrote:
Chino is right...dual channel will put less stress on CPU and should give better results if you want to tweak timings or OC. But there is a big range of CPU IMCs out there so you never know...Higher density modules put more stress than lower density ones so 4x4 vs 2x8 might favour 4x4 sometimes...depends on RAM IMC etc., what you are doing... YMMV.

Whatever you decide kkn is right; get a single kit...many get away with running mixed kits...many don't and it is not supported. Running two kits might mean you have to lower frequency relax timings all of which makes a mockery of buying a nice kit in the first place...

You do realize when he said he plans on buying two kits, he meant he'll see if the 4x4 or the 2x8 is better, stick to one and leave the other kit for a future build, right?

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Yeees:D just putting it up there...want folk to go away with the right info from any thread...