triple channel X58

A

arr4ws

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I have an ''old'' x58 build i still run . Lately i had the feeling my 6gb of ram wasnt enough . The current memory setup is 3x 2gb of corsair dominator at 1600mhz.

im looking to buy at least 12gb . Triple channel kit are pricey so i was wondering if i could use a quad kit and just use 3 of them and keep the spare for maybe a future upgrade.

only triple channel kit i found was this one

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...ID=3891137&SID=rewrite&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

any tips would be appreciated!
 
arr4ws said:
I have an ''old'' x58 build i still run . Lately i had the feeling my 6gb of ram wasnt enough . The current memory setup is 3x 2gb of corsair dominator at 1600mhz.

im looking to buy at least 12gb . Triple channel kit are pricey so i was wondering if i could use a quad kit and just use 3 of them and keep the spare for maybe a future upgrade.

only triple channel kit i found was this one

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...ID=3891137&SID=rewrite&nm_mc=AFC-C8junctionCA

any tips would be appreciated!
Click to expand...

Hi, arr4ws,

Yrs, you can use just 3 of the 4 sticks.

Hope this helps.
 
arr4ws said:
im looking to buy at least 12gb . Triple channel kit are pricey so i was wondering if i could use a quad kit and just use 3 of them and keep the spare for maybe a future upgrade.
Click to expand...

Greetings

I presume you will be buying four 4GB sticks, just double check the max. memory of your board, since you most likely have 6 slots this should be 24GB, if it says 12GB then you will have to buy additional 2GB sticks only.

Sometimes for whatever reason on a fully populated X58 board the memory controller doesn't "see" all the installed RAM so just be aware this could be a problem, also more likely to occur if the sticks are larger capacity.

If you are using used memory just make sure it is not the original DDR3 memory at 2.0 volts as this will burn out the memory controller, all triple channel memory was sold with X58 in mind and so all of it was at the memory controller 1.65 volt limit (or lower).

There is no fundamental reason triple channel memory is any different from S1150 or S2011 memory, the only reason they sell them for specific platforms is because they have different XMP memory profiles burned into the SPD chip on the actual memory stick itself, however, if you do have memory that was designed for a different socket this XMP problem can be overcome by setting up the XMP profile settings manually in the BIOS.

Thats all the relevant differences in RAM that I'm aware of.

Cheers
 
Fully populating X58 will effect your CPU thermals/overclock BTW.
 
Can i use my 2x3 with a set of 4x3 each on their channels ? Even if they arent the same brand/clock
 
yeah, just throw the other stick in a shoebox for later

X58 still has plenty of useful life in it, rocking my hexen here, love it!
 
I could go for a brand new dual channel kit also no? Tri channel seems gone from most new mobo. Maximum of my mobo is 24 gb. I was shooting for at least 12gb. But now im looking at 2x8gb. Is there a maximum my mobo support for each dimm?

Can i use different kit on each channel? Like use 2x8gb on first channel and second 2x2gb of my old ram.

I hope im precise enough !

Thanks.
 
Is there a maximum my mobo support for each dimm?
Click to expand...

Official support is a maximum of 4GB per dimm x 6 slots or 24GB of ram for non xeon lga1166 processors. lga1366 was already 2 generations old when 8GB unbuffered dimms first hit the market so no board has official support. However forum posts show suceess with 8GB dimms (even 48 GB) on some motherboards.
 
I have 3 x 6 GB of the same Corsair Dominator ram that I may be willing to part with. PM me if you're interested.
 
3 dual channel kits will be the exact same as 2 triple channel kits.

Edit: Also, how do you know you're running out of RAM? Just "feeling" isn't a good reason. 6gb is more than sufficient for the vast majority of normal use/gaming scenarios.
 
the cheapest thing to do would would be to find similar ram to what you currently have and fill the remaining slots with it.
 
My Sabertooth X58 and P6T both run 48GB no problem.

Currently running 48GB on my sabertooth and 24GB (3x8GB) on the P6T.
 
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