Which Ram to buy.

[markieboy]

Hi all

I'm looking to upgrade my Ram to 8gb. I'm currently running at 6gb ram and am looking to upgrade to the Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9-10-9-27 Dual Channel Desktop.

Will this be able to work with my Asus p6x58d-e motherboard?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[kompukare]

Hi all

I'm looking to upgrade my Ram to 8gb. I'm currently running at 6gb ram and am looking to upgrade to the Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9-10-9-27 Dual Channel Desktop.

Will this be able to work with my Asus p6x58d-e motherboard?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

x58 is triple channel. But yes, the dual channel should work but it will run in single-channel mode. Now, memory bandwidth is only relevant in certain loads but the whole point of LGA1366 (triple) and LGA2011 (quad) is the memory bandwidth so it would be silly to lose that.

Either you ditch your 3x2GB or you upgrade by filling the other three slots on your motherboard with another triple channel kit.

[markieboy]

x58 is triple channel. But yes, the dual channel should work but it will run in single-channel mode. Now, memory bandwidth is only relevant in certain loads but the whole point of LGA1366 (triple) and LGA2011 (quad) is the memory bandwidth so it would be silly to lose that.

Either you ditch your 3x2GB or you upgrade by filling the other three slots on your motherboard with another triple channel kit.

Thanks for the Information

From the advice you've given, would I be better off getting this then instead of the Vengeance I was originally going to get. Corsair Memory XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 Mhz CAS 9 Dual Channel Desktop, this, coupled with the 6gb I already have would give me 12 gb of ram.

[kompukare]

Thanks for the Information

From the advice you've given, would I be better off getting this then instead of the Vengeance I was originally going to get. Corsair Memory XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 Mhz CAS 9 Dual Channel Desktop, this, coupled with the 6gb I already have would give me 12 gb of ram.

Hm, obviously there is no such thing as 6GB dual channel since that would imply 3GB DIMMs. (It should state 6GB Triple Channel.)

However, searching for part of that product description returns results like this from Scan:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/6gb-%...-9-9-9-24-165v

CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 - 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V

And the relevant part is the 3 times 2GB bit. So, yes those should be fine: triple channel kits should have been designed for LGA1366/X58 chipsets. Although whether there are any unexpected compatibly issues with that kit and your board is something you should research before buying. In general, if you are overclocking etc. then having more sticks of memory can cause issues (so two sets of 3x2GB (2x3x2GB = 12GB) is likely to be less stable than 3x4GB=12GB), but at stock speed it should be fine. Still, no harm in searching the internet first.

[Kiyam]

Also if you decide to purchase another triple channel kit, I think I'm not mistaken in thinking that it would work better if your other 6GB of ram is of the same spec as your original 6? Sure it would still work, but make sure at least the timings and frequencies etc are the same, as your motherboard will otherwise make them all run at the lower speed of the 2 sets.

[watercooled]

There's nothing wrong with using 2 DIMMs in a 1366 board, it will still run dual-channel provided you use the correct slots of course. And AFAIK 5 sticks will also run triple channel, with the second bank of DIMMs effectively running dual-channel, provided you used matched DIMMs within each 'bank'.
E.g:
Slot 1: 3GB
Slot 2: 4GB
Slot 3: 3GB
Slot 4: 4GB
Slot 5: 3GB
Slot 6: empty

AFAIK the above should work triple channel as before on 1,3,5 and effectively dual channel on 2&4, but it may vary between motherboards so I can't be certain.

TBH there's more to 1366/2011 than memory bandwidth. Of course it's a selling point for the server/workstation side (and for consumers who think moar is better) but most consumer apps see very little to no benefit from even installing a third/fourth DIMM anyway - it's not something I'd worry overly about. Of course memory benchmarks will give you higher numbers, but real programs, not so much. For example: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mem...11-ddr3_3.html

Also bear in mind upgrading from 6GB to 8GB likely won't make much difference unless you're actually running short of memory at times.

And as for speed/timings, yeah it's best to get a set with equal specs or you'll have to fall back to the lowest common denominator to stay in spec.

[markieboy]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's very much appreciated.

It's looking like I will have to go for the full 12GB triple channel kit instead of just getting an added 6GB kit as it seems like the Ram my computer is currently using is out of stock just about everywhere ( I have a sneaking suspicion that it's been discontinued) so it will be impossible to match.

The manual to my P6x58d-e motherboard does suggest though that I could us a dual channel kit, would I notice any real performance drop off from using dual channel ram instead of the triple channel ram? I mostly use my computer for gaming and play a lot of fps and strategy games.

The dual channel ram is tempting as it is a bit cheaper and there is a lot more choice, but obviously, if the performance rate is severely affected by using dual instead of triple, then it makes sense to bite the bullet and go for the triple channel ram.

[watercooled]

You don't have to match memory exactly - just check for the same voltage, clock speed and timings. Memory tends to be grouped by clock speed by e-tailers, and clock speed and voltage are often the same for RAM until you start getting high-speed stuff etc. Also, don't worry if the timings are faster/slower anyway TBH - all memory in the system will fall back to the lower clocks, and it makes little difference anyway.

As I explained above, it's unlikely you'll see any realistic performance drop using dual-channel memory for desktop applications.

Edit: Triple-channel memory does seem to be disappearing from stores now I've just checked. Also, your existing kit may be 1.65v, and most memory now is 1.5v or lower (you'd need to under/overvolt one or the other, neither of which is guaranteed to work, and overvolting carries the potential of damage to the DIMM). It may be easier and cheaper to just go with a dual kit.

[Bonebreaker777]

What would happen if you would buy the single module versions of your existing kit?

Joing the previous comments, just match the size (capacity), consumption (voltage), speed (frequency) and reaction (timing) of your existing modules and you will be just fine. The JEDEC specifications are there for a reason. Oh, and if you can, match the manufacturer.

What memory you have right now exactly, if I may ask?

[robredz]

You could buy a larger kit or match 3 x 4 Gig DIMMS as suggested by Bonebreaker77 and sell your existing RAM to recoup cost, if it is an in demandkit you may get a good price.

[markieboy]

What would happen if you would buy the single module versions of your existing kit?

Joing the previous comments, just match the size (capacity), consumption (voltage), speed (frequency) and reaction (timing) of your existing modules and you will be just fine. The JEDEC specifications are there for a reason. Oh, and if you can, match the manufacturer.

What memory you have right now exactly, if I may ask?

I currently have Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 (3x2GB) at the moment.

Again, thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. It's been years since I've upgraded the ram in any of my computers and didn't realise just how much of a minefield it has become.

Seriously thinking now of just replacing my existing triple channel kit with a duel channel kit, especially as triple channel seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

[robredz]

I currently have Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 (3x2GB) at the moment.

Again, thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. It's been years since I've upgraded the ram in any of my computers and didn't realise just how much of a minefield it has become.

Seriously thinking now of just replacing my existing triple channel kit with a duel channel kit, especially as triple channel seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

Still worth using it if the board supports it though as it has higher bandwidth than dual channel 192 bit v 128 bit, so three sticks of identical spec DIMMS pref from same maufacturer and type should be OK imho

[Bonebreaker777]

I currently have Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600 (3x2GB) at the moment.

Again, thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. It's been years since I've upgraded the ram in any of my computers and didn't realise just how much of a minefield it has become.

Seriously thinking now of just replacing my existing triple channel kit with a duel channel kit, especially as triple channel seems to have gone the way of the dodo.

Don't replace the triple-channel with an dual channel kit, if you have the option to have a triple-channel memory configuration.

I see that your memory kit is unavailable at the moment: Corsair Memory XMS3 3x2GB 9-9-9-24 1.65V for £59.52 UNAVAILABLE

You can have either a similar kit (Slightly different but closest to yours and fairly cheap): Kingston HyperX 3x2GB 9-9-9-27 1.65V for £52.99 AVAILABLE

Or get rid of your current set and get a brand new triple channel kit if you are that much concerned about your memory capacity: Kingston HyperX Genesis 3x4GB 9-9-9-27 1.65V for £97.00 AVAILABLE or G.Skill Ripjaws 3x4GB 9-9-9-24 1.5V for £97.78 AVAILABLE

Or get rid of your current set and make your own triple channel kit from single memory modules (they should work together just as well as commercially available triple-channel kits): like Crucial 1x4GB Ballistix Smart Tracer 8-8-8-24 1.5V with LEDs and on-fly customization

You have any number of choices but I would personally stick to triple channel memory configuration since you have that option avaliable

[Bonebreaker777]

Ah, double posting, sorry. Can't find the delete option.

[watercooled]

Sorry to keep re-iterating the same thing, but since it seems to be getting ignored, or disputed with no data to back it up, I'll post a few of the charts to make a point (from the xbit article I linked earlier).






Running a desktop 1366/2011 PC with two channels really isn't such a disastrous thing! Sure, if it happens to be a cheaper way of doing things, for instance buying 6GB vs 8GB, then fine. But I really wouldn't stress about spending more or inconveniencing yourself to populate all channels. Also, as you can also see, two channels of the slightly higher clocked memory are faster than all 4 channels populated with the 1600 stuff in many of the benchmarks.

[kompukare]

Just looked up some benches and yes, aside from specialized task (not even sure what) the only performance difference seems to happen if you go down to single-channel. The ones you linked to above were for LGA2011 so I looked for some LGA1366 ones and found this behardware (AFAIK that's basically a subset of hardware.fr but in English):

http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/814/

And they had LGA1366, LGA1155, LGA1156 and AM3 in there and again like the above xbitlabs examples even file compression is hardly affected by triple vs dual.