RAM question. 4+4 or 8+2?

[Tiny Voices]

So I currently have 4GB RAM (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 And I want to go to at least 8GB.

What would perform better?

Buying 1 8GB stick at 1333 and the same latencies and running it with one of my 2GB sticks. (10GB)

OR

Buying 8GB (2x4GB) at 1600. (8GB)

My board supports 16GB RAM but it only has 2 slots because its an mATX board.

I am only trying to spend like $40.

Other specs:
550w power supply
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
nVidia GT 520 2GB GDDR3 <--- crummy card only until Christmas
GIGABYTE 78LMT-SP2

[BRealistic]

I have always heard that ram works better when in matched pairs.

Why do you think you need more than 4 GB?

Also- buying faster ram that your mobo supports is waste of cash.
Note the speed (1333/1066/800) is not the same as latency.

[Tiny Voices]

I know all of this. In the BIOS the board says it supports up to pc3-12800.

Also if i got the 8gb stick I would get a 9-9-9-24 ddr3 1333 pc3-10600. Which matches what i have now. exactly.

[Egilbe]

matched pairs if you want it to run at Dual Channel mode, otherwise it runs Single Channel, that means 2+2 or 4+4 or 8+8. A matched pair is RAM that is sold together, that's been verified by the manufacturer to work as a set. Buying from a different manufacturer may or may not run at dual channel, but it certainly isn't recommended

oh wtf, I'm retarded today. It's dual channel or single channel. not DDR or SDR

[BRealistic]

matched pairs if you want it to run at DDR, otherwise it runs SDR, that means 2+2 or 4+4 or 8+8. A matched pair is RAM that is sold together, that's been verified by the manufacturer to work as a set. Buying from a different manufacturer may or may not run at DDR, but it certainly isn't recommended.

I didn't know about the DDR thing... and that explains why so many ram options are sold in pairs.

[Egilbe]

I didn't know about the DDR thing... and that explains why so many ram options are sold in pairs.

I edited my post. I was thinking dual and triple channel, not DDR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-c...y_architecture

[BsickPassat]

So I currently have 4GB RAM (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 And I want to go to at least 8GB.

What would perform better?

Buying 1 8GB stick at 1333 and the same latencies and running it with one of my 2GB sticks. (10GB)

OR

Buying 8GB (2x4GB) at 1600. (8GB)

My board supports 16GB RAM but it only has 2 slots because its an mATX board.

I am only trying to spend like $40.

Other specs:
550w power supply
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE
nVidia GT 520 2GB GDDR3 <--- crummy card only until Christmas
GIGABYTE 78LMT-SP2

Mobo doesn't support 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM.

2x4 GB at Microcenter (there is a location at Rockville) for $38 plus tax.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0361035

[Tiny Voices]

The BIOS has options for 1600 speed RAM. If you scan the board with any online scanner (crucial.com or whatever) it says it can take up to 16gb of RAM at 1600. This has all been confirmed in the bios.

[BRealistic]

The BIOS has options for 1600 speed RAM. If you scan the board with any online scanner (crucial.com or whatever) it says it can take up to 16gb of RAM at 1600. This has all been confirmed in the bios.

Hmm.... checking the motherboard specs, it says 1.5 volts for the ram.
So as long as the 1333 or 1600 ram you buy doesn't need more than 1.5 volts to run at that speed...
Possibly the top ram speeds were lower when the mobo was originally made, so that's why they just say "1333+" as a way to say it may run faster ram.

What do you want for the two sticks of 2GB ram? (my PC is currently running 2 2 and 2 1)

[Tiny Voices]

haha $20 shipped?

[Hostile]

Why do you think you need more than 4 GB?

Are you posting from 1996? 4GB is the bare minimum nowadays.

[BRealistic]

haha $20 shipped?

What are the specs? Matched pair?

[BRealistic]

Are you posting from 1996? 4GB is the bare minimum nowadays.

To do what? The OP is playing Minecraft... and that's why I posed the question.
Though the OP may be trying to get this PC up to a good spec for playing more taxing games.

[Tiny Voices]

I play a few things. Mainly i have alot of stuff running at the same time. (web pages, photoshop, fruity loops, games. etc.) I play games like minecraft, company of heroes, starcraft 2, diablo 3.

the ram is 2x2gb ddr3 1333 pc3-10666. only bought it 2 weeks ago to get this build off the ground.

[BRealistic]

I play a few things. Mainly i have alot of stuff running at the same time. (web pages, photoshop, fruity loops, games. etc.) I play games like minecraft, company of heroes, starcraft 2, diablo 3.

Yeah... I can see more ram helping. Though with new games the GPU is def the biggest choke point.

the ram is 2x2gb ddr3 1333 pc3-10666. only bought it 2 weeks ago to get this build off the ground.

1.5 volt? Hmm.. checking my existing, I will need to upgrade the other 2gb sticks to 1333 so they all will run at 1333. sigh.
FWIW_ I just checked tigerdirect pricing.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...142&CatId=4534

At 20 bucks I save the 7 bucks in shipping.
But if I buy 4 2GB sticks, the shipping is still the same.
So if I buy 2 more new sticks anyway, I pay the same total amount.

[PhReE]

Why do you think you need more than 4 GB?

I have 32GB in my laptop It i really cool to b able to work and run VM's and do everything I need to do and actually not be limited by the computer hardware anymore. I 'only' have 16GB in my desktop, but it runs quad channel DDR3 2133, which is a lot more expensive for 32GB, and I don't ever really run VM's on the desktop either.

Seriously though, with only 8GB I run out of ram all the time, and that's not even running virtual machines, just a few copies of visual studio and whatnot. 16GB is much better but hey RAM is cheap so I went for 32GB in the laptop

[BRealistic]

I have 32GB in my laptop It i really cool to b able to work and run VM's and do everything I need to do and actually not be limited by the computer hardware anymore. I 'only' have 16GB in my desktop, but it runs quad channel DDR3 2133, which is a lot more expensive for 32GB, and I don't ever really run VM's on the desktop either.

Seriously though, with only 8GB I run out of ram all the time, and that's not even running virtual machines, just a few copies of visual studio and whatnot. 16GB is much better but hey RAM is cheap so I went for 32GB in the laptop

How many programs do you need to run at once?
And are you bipolar?

[PhReE]

How many programs do you need to run at once?
And are you bipolar?

Ehh, at work I can end up running a lot, many browser tabs of course, 4-5 copies of visual studio, 2 instances of MS SQL, 1 instance of mysql, the management tools for each of the databases, IIS + management consoles, notepad++, foobar2000, and then a windows server VM, and sometimes a linux server vm.

Why do you ask if I am bi-polar? but no, I do no fit the medical classification of being so.

[BRealistic]

Ehh, at work I can end up running a lot, many browser tabs of course, 4-5 copies of visual studio, 2 instances of MS SQL, 1 instance of mysql, the management tools for each of the databases, IIS + management consoles, notepad++, foobar2000, and then a windows server VM, and sometimes a linux server vm.

How often do you switch between all those programs?

I had this issue at my last job- employees would leave every darn program they opened active all day, even if the odds of them using that program again that day were very low.
Then they bitch about their PC being slow. Well no effing duh.

Why do you ask if I am bi-polar? but no, I do no fit the medical classification of being so.

You drive a turbo VR6.. which means medication must be involved.

[PhReE]

How often do you switch between all those programs?

I had this issue at my last job- employees would leave every darn program they opened active all day, even if the odds of them using that program again that day were very low.
Then they bitch about their PC being slow. Well no effing duh.


You drive a turbo VR6.. which means medication must be involved.

hahaha, well, I am actively using 50%-70%, at least, of the running apps. Sometimes some of the copies of visual studio will have stuff opened for me to look at in reference, but I may not be actively working on it. In any case, I want my computers to be able to do whatever I want them to, with ease

No worries, there's plenty of medication involved.

[Hostile]

To do what? The OP is playing Minecraft... and that's why I posed the question.
Though the OP may be trying to get this PC up to a good spec for playing more taxing games.

"To do what?" Uhh, use Windows.

Windows itself runs significantly better with 8GB of RAM, never mind it will drastically increase the number of apps you can run at once.

And reading your other posts- who are you, the Memory Stasi? RAM is stupid cheap, why do people have to justify to you why they need more than 4GB?

[DanG]

"To do what?" Uhh, use Windows.

Windows itself runs significantly better with 8GB of RAM, never mind it will drastically increase the number of apps you can run at once.

And reading your other posts- who are you, the Memory Stasi? RAM is stupid cheap, why do people have to justify to you why they need more than 4GB?

Hence why I have 24GB at home in my system. It was $89 back at Christmas. It was cheaper to throw away the 3x2GB's I had and go with 6x4GB than it was to get another 3x2GB

Do I need 24GB, no, not really, but it was cheap enough that I did it.

[BRealistic]

"To do what?" Uhh, use Windows.

Windows itself runs significantly better with 8GB of RAM, never mind it will drastically increase the number of apps you can run at once.

And reading your other posts- who are you, the Memory Stasi? RAM is stupid cheap, why do people have to justify to you why they need more than 4GB?

I just thought it odd that the OP went from building a super cheap PC a few weeks ago to swapping the ram out for an upgrade now.
But you are correct- ram is cheap.

[PhReE]

"To do what?" Uhh, use Windows.

Windows itself runs significantly better with 8GB of RAM, never mind it will drastically increase the number of apps you can run at once.

This is very true. Having plenty of 'extra' memory available for disk-cache can significantly speed up your system

[Tiny Voices]

I just thought it odd that the OP went from building a super cheap PC a few weeks ago to swapping the ram out for an upgrade now.
But you are correct- ram is cheap.

Yeah, things got a little different. The alienware shat the bed.

So, hello new main PC. I built it with one paycheck and I am slowly going to work on making it into what I want. Plus I got all I really wanted to start with. (Processor, Board, HDD, PSU)

[BRealistic]

Yeah, things got a little different. The alienware shat the bed.

So, hello new main PC. I built it with one paycheck and I am slowly going to work on making it into what I want. Plus I got all I really wanted to start with. (Processor, Board, HDD, PSU)

Wait.. I thought your gene pool took the Alienware?
So are they taking this one too?

[Tiny Voices]

The alienware was my dads only for a short while because he was waiting for his new company laptop to get here and I have a netbook I used in the mean time. I planned to use this time to build a desktop to keep at school. The alienware pooped out 2 days after I got it back and so now the desktop has become my main rig.

Sent from my Inspire 4g using Tapatalk 2

[Max17]

There are two problems I see with a single 8GB ram:
1. 8GB rams are more expensive than two 4GB rams.
2. A single ram would not be run in dual channel and would thus lower performance slightly compared to two or four 4GB rams.

Your best bet would probably be to get two or four 4GB rams for now and wait until 8GB rams become priced reasonably. May be the prices are falling in the last of this or next year. Then you will purchase 8GB rams for your PC.

[Hostile]

You're wrong. Or your a spammer...

[Max17]

There are two problems I see with a single 8GB ram:
1. 8GB rams are more expensive than two 4GB rams.
2. A single ram would not be run in dual channel and would thus lower performance slightly compared to two or four 4GB rams.

Your best bet would probably be to get two or four 4GB rams for now and wait until 8GB rams become priced reasonably. May be the prices are falling in the last of this or next year. Then you will purchase 8GB rams for your PC.

Hey how can you say this that I am a spammer???? If I say you are a spammer.

[Egilbe]

Hey how can you say this that I am a spammer???? If I say you are a spammer.

advertising spam link in your sig?

[Hostile]

Hey how can you say this that I am a spammer???? If I say you are a spammer.

Obvious spammer response.

[DanG]

Maybe not a spammer, but a bit out of touch.

Newegg has an 8GB DDR3 1333 stick of Kingston ram for $34.99 with free shipping. I don't know many people who would call that expensive.