Noob Memory Question

[ald90]

With 4 slots available, is it better to have 4x4 sticks or 2x8 sticks that both have the same latency on a dual channel system.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

It makes no difference.

 

[ChefJoe]

Once upon a time it made sense to leave memory slots open on the chance you'd upgrade. Nowadays, it's rare to even come close to using half of that 16 GB (outside of some specialized apps, momentary processing, or virtual machines) so I'd go with whatever seems like it'll keep money in your pocket.

 

[bigdogchris]

It makes no difference.

Na, less sticks is better. Create a ramdisk with 2 sticks then again with 2 more of the same speed. 4 sticks is higher latency and slower writes.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Many motherboards don't seem to be reliable with 4 DIMMs installed, at least not 4 junk DIMMs (heatsinked stuff from Corsiar, Kingston, G.Skill, Geil, Mushkin, Patriot, etc.).