3 sticks of 2gb or 3 8gb gigabyte x58-ud5

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dpoverlord

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EDIT:
I received as a gift 2 4GB dimms. would I see more or less of a perforamance increase if I took out my 3 dimms and put in 2 4GB dimms, or can I mix them?


Hey guys I have an gigabyte x58a-ud5 rev 2 motherboard with 3 sticks of 2gb PC3-10600 ram.

I was thinking of upgrading. Can I get 2 more sticks of 4gb or does it need to be 3 sticks of the same type (2gb) to keep tri layer?

Or can I get 3 sticks of 4 or 6gb ram instead of 2gb sticks? Will this cause any performance / stability issues. Ram seems really cheap now so I figured an upgrade would be helpful.

Thanks!
 
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You can have 3,4 or 6 dims of the same running 3 channel as per your manual, but not 5 dims in any configuration. 5 dims you can only run at dual Chanel speed not saying it really matters.

If you are keeping your old ram buy another 3 dims of the same.

Personally I would rip them out and go 3x4GB or 3x8GB, as you pointed out ram is dirt cheap and its not worth the time messing around if you can't find exactly the same and have issues.
 
In addition, be aware that most LGA 1366 desktop CPUs do not officially support 8GB DIMMs (or put it this way, the LGA 1366 IMC is officially limited to 2GB per rank or 4GB per DIMM for unbuffered non-ECC RAM). You might be able to get three 8GB sticks to work with your CPU and motherboard combo, but there is absolutely no guarantee that it will always work.
 
dpoverlord said:
so better to get 6 dimms of 2GB
Click to expand...

Actually, you might be able to get three 4GB DIMMs to work with your existing three 2GB DIMMs. That would give you a total of 18GB. Running only five DIMMs (three 2GB DIMMs plus two 4GB DIMMs) would force the IMC to run in an imbalanced "Flex" mode of triple/single channel (where in this case only the first 6GB of the total of 14GB would run in triple channel and the remaining 8GB would run in single channel). This imbalance would hamper overall system performance.
 
Thanks OP, I was gonna start a similar thread, in the case of a ASUS P6T.

I do ask tho: would it be advisable to add more RAM if its just the same company (ie Corsair but adding 6GB Vengeance on top of 6GB dominator)? I remember mixing RAM was fine as long as voltages and speeds matched, but heard with x58's its a no-no. I was going to just get a 4x4GB kit until I saw a really damn nice deal on that 6GB vengeance kit.
 
What did you buy Kaiyoko?

I have G-SKILL-6GB-3-x-2GB-240-Pin-DDR3-SDRAM-DDR3-1600-PC3-12800l
800x600px-LL-706541c9_1045371242_20-231-225-TS.jpeg
ram. Would I be better going then for the same Dimms or can I mix with another set of 3 6GB Dimms?
 
I didn't buy anything yet, still deciding on the 6GB Vengeance and save money towards the new system upgrade, or buy a 16GB kit (4x4GB) to replace my RAM and transition it to the Ivy Bridge build.
 
I received as a gift 2 4GB dimms. would I see more or less of a perforamance increase if I took out my 3 dimms and put in 2 4GB dimms, or can I mix them?
 
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