Will more memory conflict with high fsb?

H

HarkovAdm

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
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So say I want to upgrade from 2 to 4gb, and I pretty much have my fsb maxed out, will upgrading from 2x1gb to 2x2gb be just as hard on the northbridge as going to 4x1gb? I've already got it running dual channel obviously, but I am not sure whether the amount of ram or the number of sticks (or both) make it more difficult for the northbridge (?) Thanks.
 
In a nutshell, yes, adding more capacity makes it harder to achieve a high overclock. You've got that many more parts that have to perform out of spec, and that's what causes the trouble.
 
well I'm not interested to know whether the added memory might fail, I want to know exactly what the effect would be on the northbridge and whether there is a necessary lower max fsb with more ram and/or more sticks
 
Hmm. I'm not sure. What northbridge do you have? In the olden days, adding more ram used to lower the max FSB speed, but I'm not sure if it is like that anymore (I doubt it).

I guess I don't understand your question. What do you mean when you say your FSB is pretty much "maxed out?" I took that to mean you overclocked it.
 
Royicus said:
Hmm. I'm not sure. What northbridge do you have? In the olden days, adding more ram used to lower the max FSB speed, but I'm not sure if it is like that anymore (I doubt it).

I guess I don't understand your question. What do you mean when you say your FSB is pretty much "maxed out?" I took that to mean you overclocked it.
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I think he is worried about added ram causing his Northbridge to run harder/hotter and thus forcing him to downclock his FSB.
 
I believe more memory modules require more power from the northbridge, so you may hit limitations with voltage/cooling sooner. I'm not sure how much going to higher density modules effects things tho.
 
When I went from 2x1GB to 2x2GB, there was no affect on my FSB with my Maximus Formula. On a previous build, I had gone from 2x1GB to 4x1GB and I did have to back down the FSB to compensate for the increase in the northbridge temp.
 
ok thanks for the response. Anyone else with an experience or definitive information?
 
no one knows the answer to this question for sure? Well I guess I shouldn't feel dumb for asking the question, then!
With ram so cheap, I might just take a gamble and see if I can stay at 400x9 (this old 975x board doesn't get much higher than that)
 
Running 4 sticks of ram will always stress the memory controller and thus lowering your potential oc.

If you want 4gb or more of ram in your system I would suggest that you get it in 2x2gb batches rather than 4x1gb as it will take some load off the mem controller.

The less sticks the better.
 
forceman, you are running 4x1 no problem, but you are also running 370x9 as opposed to my 400x9 which is exactly the sort of downclock I want to avoid.

wshmaster, thanks for the reply. I will check out some of these recent 2x2gb deals as opposed to considering buying another pair 1gb sticks as it seems the consensus is that the number of sticks - not the amount of ram per stick - is the limiting factor.
 
HarkovAdm said:
forceman, you are running 4x1 no problem, but you are also running 370x9 as opposed to my 400x9 which is exactly the sort of downclock I want to avoid.
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True - I should have been clear that my point was that when I went from 2 x 1 to 4 x 1 I didn't have to change any settings at all (latencies, voltage, FSB, etc). Didn't mean to be comparing apples to apples with your situation. That being said, if I didn't already have an investment in the 2GB I would have gone with a 2 x 2 configuration.
 
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