4x1 GB sticks not too effective?

[daftpunkit]

Is running 4X1GB sticks of memory (PC 8500) not that good? I remember being told to avoid using all the memory slots. It's not that good? or doesn't let you OC that well?

I was wondering because I kind of went nuts on the OCZ ram sale and the Crucial sales...
I bought 4GB of OCZ @ PC8500 and 2GB of Corsair @ PC8000. I am wondering if I should use the Corsair Ballistix PC8000 2x1GB or OCZ PC8500 4x1GB or 2x1GB. Both have 5-5-5-15 timings but one runs at 2.1V and the other at 2.2V.

I have the Gigabyte DS3 Rev 3.3 and want to OC the C2D E6420 to 3.2Ghz with the Thermalright Ultra 120 Xtreme.

Which setup is most ideal/best?

Thanks in advance!

 

[stevty2889]

The main problem with 4 sticks of ram is generaly more of a problem for CPU's with integrated memory controllers. It can still have an impact on overclocking with Intel chipset motherboards, but doesn't tend to be too much of a problem. I get the same overclock with 2 sticks of ram as I do with 4 sticks of ram on my Q6600 system. Of course if you aren't using a 64bit OS, then 4gb of ram is going to waste, since a 32bit OS won't allow you to use more than ~3.25ghz

 

[mgutz]

agree with the integrated controller. i have 4x1GB OCZ DDR2800 4-5-4-15 on a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. if i only use two slots, using ANY 2 of the 4 sticks, i am stable at 3.3Ghz. if i use all 4 slots then my system is only stable at around 2.9Ghz. i use Vista x64 and multiple VMWare sessions. the extra memory makes a huge difference. i plan to go to 6GB when 2GB sticks become value priced. if you use Vista 32 then get 2x1GB and 2x512MB to total 3GB in dual channel, anything more as the other poster said is wasted.

i've never had much luck mixing memory simply because of the voltage requirement and latency differences. i originally had Corsair XMS2 at 1.9v and then bought OCZ 2.1v on sale. once i started overclocking i became worried about overvolting the XMS2. the XMS2 are far better overclockers on my system than OCZ (both DDR2 800).

cpu: C2D e6300