I am building my new system and received my parts today. My motherboard came with a single stick of corsair vengeance 8gb 1600. I didn't realize I was receiving only a single stick so here's my question. Should I order a second stick and have 16gb knowing that is overkill or just order new set of 2x4gb faster with lower CL for same price?

I am building my new system and received my parts today. My motherboard came with a single stick of corsair vengeance 8gb 1600. I didn't realize I was receiving only a single stick so here's my question. Should I order a second stick and have 16gb knowing that is overkill or just order new set of 2x4gb faster with lower CL for same price?

 

Complete system specs please?

I would definitely go for the 2x4gig of the faster memory. Frame rate (with graphics) is king in this game.

Asrock extreme6

3570k

Enermax tb40 CPU cooler

Rosewill thor v2 case

Crucial m4 128 for OS

WD black 1tb

Gigabyte wind force gtx670

 

Sorry, should have included in first post

 

Scott

You´re most likely to get problems if you acquire a second stick, that is not matched with the one you´ve got. That means, in the factory, they pair up ram sticks i kits to ensure they´ll work together. Don´t see why you shouldn´t be able to run 8 gigz off a single stick.

If you want more ram sticks you should get a new kit.

go for the 2x4gig

go for the 2x4gig

Why? He´s already got 8 gigz...

I am building my new system and received my parts today. My motherboard came with a single stick of corsair vengeance 8gb 1600. I didn't realize I was receiving only a single stick so here's my question. Should I order a second stick and have 16gb knowing that is overkill or just order new set of 2x4gb faster with lower CL for same price?

 

get the 2x4Gig... if you spread out the load, instead of information being written and read from just the 1 stick, .. it will be more evenly distributed across the 2 sticks and be able to be written and read faster. Then you would also be able to test which is actually faster... the 1 stick, or the 2x4 set. either way, if your Ram messes up later, then all that you will have to do is swap it out for the other that you have put away and you are up and running again in litterally 5 minutes.

 

Why? He´s already got 8 gigz...

 

I'm guessing that you did not read the ENTIRE op...

Lol yes I did, was just looking for an explaination on your advice. And on behalf of OP thanks for elaborating on it. It's very interesting. Do you have a reference to your explaination on the distribution of information load across single stick vs. two, the latter being the faster option? 'Cause I'd really like to know more about my system.

As I understand it dual channel mode has slight performance benefits over running a single stick of RAM, and that if you want to run dual channel it is better to start off with matched pairs to avoid any possible incompatibilities raised by having two sticks from different batches. So if the OP only wants 8GB then my advice would be to return the single 8GB stick and get the matched pair of lower latency 4GB sticks.

 

Do you have a reference to your explaination on the distribution of information load across single stick vs. two, the latter being the faster option?

 

There's lots of info out there, dual channel memory control has been a motherboard chipset feature for a while and does apparently have advantages, off the top of my head I imagine having 2 sticks available improves write speeds.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-the-Dual-Triple-and-Quad-Channel-Memory-Architectures/133

 

:good:

I was even going to throw out there, if your motherboard has the slots for it, and you can run 8Gig of ram... possibly getting 4 - 2Gig matched sticks, but in that some performance might be compromised versus just having 2 - 4Gig sticks. It might be a little better, but then it might be worse.

 

Ram sticks almost act like Cores on a CPU. The extra Ram is not really used until it is needed to run an application. if you have 4 - 2Gig sticks, and only want to play Solitare, then most likely only 1 - 2Gig stick will really be used with 6Gigs waiting to be used. But where as if you want to run FSX, then 4 Gigs will only be used as that is the max that FSX will call for, leaving the other 4Gigs for the rest of the system processes that need it.

 

FSX will also only run, I believe, on a max of 3-4 cores... so if you have 2 Quad-core CPUs (total of 8 cores), then only 3-4 will get used for FSX leaving the rest for the rest of Windows, Internet Explorer, Fraps, etc...

Thanks for claryfying, gentlemen. There are so many opinions out there, I really appreciate a source reference, be it from hard core tech sites or personal experience.

Good reading!

It might be a little better, but then it might be worse.

 

That is about as definitive a statement as can be given.

 

Ram sticks almost act like Cores on a CPU. The extra Ram is not really used until it is needed to run an application.

 

Hmmmm...this seems very misleading to me. The two are nothing like the same as you describe it. If you intended a different meaning that makes sense, it is far too obscure.

 

If you meant that additional capacity in a multicore CPU and additional RAM won't be used unless needed, then there is no reason to complicate the obvious.

 

I see your point, but it can easily be misunderstood and buried in the statement and anology, I reckon.

 

Kind regards,

With your system you can run up to 2133MHz typically.

So going with 2x4GB @ 2133MHz in dual channel would provide about a 10-20% perf boost.

 

Also, you could still run all tree sticks in dual channel provided that you have the same amount of RAM in each channel, 4+4GB in in channel A & 8GB in channel B for example. It's true that you might run into compatibility issues with this combination, but those are not common with SB / IB systems. If you where to run this combo, you'd need to run all 3 sticks at 1600MHz though, and you probably don't need 16GB anyway, but still, it's a posibility.

 

How's it running as it is?