RAM upgrade on a DDR3 machine

[kalniel]

What about matched pairs? Surely if you use individual sticks you can't run dual channel? Or am I totally wrong there?

Totally wrong. There's never been any need to 'match' a pair of ram sticks.

[ik9000]

Totally wrong. There's never been any need to 'match' a pair of ram sticks.

but manufacturers do test kits to make sure they are performing similarly. You need to be more careful popping in single sticks if you want to OC or tinker with timings, latencies etc especially if running in dual channel configuration. You don't need to buy pairs/threes/four kits but it can make sense for certain use cases.

[philehidiot]

Totally wrong. There's never been any need to 'match' a pair of ram sticks.

but manufacturers do test kits to make sure they are performing similarly. You need to be more careful popping in single sticks if you want to OC or tinker with timings, latencies etc especially if running in dual channel configuration. You don't need to buy pairs/threes/four kits but it can make sense for certain use cases.

So if I'm running at bog standard frequencies and latencies / building a machine for someone who isn't going to OC then it makes sense to just buy cheap individual sticks like the above and manually set it to dual channel and so on.

BUT if I'm doing it for myself and I'm almost certainly going to be running it in an overclocked config with tight timings, etc and possibly higher voltages then it makes sense to buy kits?

[MrJim]

So if I'm running at bog standard frequencies and latencies / building a machine for someone who isn't going to OC then it makes sense to just buy cheap individual sticks like the above and manually set it to dual channel and so on.

BUT if I'm doing it for myself and I'm almost certainly going to be running it in an overclocked config with tight timings, etc and possibly higher voltages then it makes sense to buy kits?

I would always try to buy RAM sticks of the same brand & specification if I were to want to run them in dual channel mode. They should work without issue; if for some reason they don't, you might just have to manually adjust the timings to get them working in dual-channel. The advantage of buying a 'matched pair' of modules is that the manufacturer guarantees that the pair work together at the stated speed.

[ik9000]

So if I'm running at bog standard frequencies and latencies / building a machine for someone who isn't going to OC then it makes sense to just buy cheap individual sticks like the above and manually set it to dual channel and so on.

BUT if I'm doing it for myself and I'm almost certainly going to be running it in an overclocked config with tight timings, etc and possibly higher voltages then it makes sense to buy kits?

If it were me I'd give them the option. "I can put in this either
a) a mismatched set of unbranded stuff for £xx
or b) this set of matched chips with LP heat spreader and a warranty that is worth more than tu'pence for £yy
or c) this super premium garish LED-lit set of gawdy neon gaming RAM capable of speeds you'll never utilise for £zzz.
Which would you prefer?"

[Zak33]

you can shrink the virtual file easily so no, no need for a bigger drive

[philehidiot]

you can shrink the virtual file easily so no, no need for a bigger drive

Oh yeh...

[philehidiot]

If it were me I'd give them the option. "I can put in this either
a) a mismatched set of unbranded stuff for £xx
or b) this set of matched chips with LP heat spreader and a warranty that is worth more than tu'pence for £yy
or c) this super premium garish LED-lit set of gawdy neon gaming RAM capable of speeds you'll never utilise for £zzz.
Which would you prefer?"

C. Ideally the gold stuff that's actually relatively slow for the price but boy.... is it shiny.

[ik9000]

C. Ideally the gold stuff that's actually relatively slow for the price but boy.... is it shiny.

This forum really needs a face-palm icon...

[philehidiot]

This forum really needs a face-palm icon...

I'd actually like to buy some of that in order to burn it, film it and put it on youtube as an unboxing. Just to annoy people.

Maybe photonic induction would lend me his 20KW PSU to.... "overclock" it.

[kalniel]

I would always try to buy RAM sticks of the same brand & specification if I were to want to run them in dual channel mode. They should work without issue; if for some reason they don't, you might just have to manually adjust the timings to get them working in dual-channel. The advantage of buying a 'matched pair' of modules is that the manufacturer guarantees that the pair work together at the stated speed.

This.

I doubt they bother to do any specific matching for that guarantee either - it's just a small premium that they set off against the returns on the off chance they don't both work at the stated speed/timings.

[DanceswithUnix]

Totally wrong. There's never been any need to 'match' a pair of ram sticks.

There was once, but it was some time ago. I think ram started getting driven as independent channels when we started getting multi core CPUs so that made more sense. Before that even with a single channel having matched ram allowed the PC to enable bank interleave mode for a slight performance boost. I'm not surprised the idea is ingrained into our collective memory.

But these days, I have upgraded a couple of PCs with a single stick. For example, an 8GB system with 2x4GB sticks, I put the two old sticks into a single channel and then stick an 8GB stick in the other channel to upgrade it to 16GB. I try and keep the speed ratings the same, the amount of ram on each channel in balanced, but all the other properties of the ram I don't care.

[badass]

This.

I doubt they bother to do any specific matching for that guarantee either - it's just a small premium that they set off against the returns on the off chance they don't both work at the stated speed/timings.

I dunno about kits with 2 sticks but the difference between the dual stick kits and quad stick kits is the timings are different. My kit's tRCD (IIRC) is more relaxed. Which funnily enough is the same advice given when running more than one stick per channel any way. Of course, you could achieve the same thing by manually setting the timings.