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picking out a 12GB (3x4GB) kit

V

velvetpants

Member
Hello
I'm thinking about upgrading my ram to 12GB but since my motherboard only has 4 slots, I'll have to get 4GB chips.

I am pretty much clueless though when it comes to picking out ram, I usually don't pay much attention to it in my builds, I even just found out that 4GB ram chips existed...

Here are my current specs:

CPU: i7 920 @ 3.8GHz HT off
Motherboard: Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Ram: 6GB OCZ gold extacy (or something like that, can't check right now I'm not at home) DDR3-1600
GPU: HD 5870

so what do the experts here at anadtech recommend?
should I just go for higher clock rate or focus more on the timings? What manufacturer is the most reliable you think?

Also I'm new here, so if I'm doing it wrong, then please let me know 😀
 
velvetpants said:
I'm thinking about upgrading my ram to 12GB
Click to expand...

Do you really need the 12GB?

velvetpants said:
should I just go for higher clock rate or focus more on the timings? What manufacturer is the most reliable you think?
Click to expand...

Most important thing IMO is that the RAM is rated for 1.5v at published clock/timings. You probably won't need more than 1333MHz data rate, and you probably won't notice any difference in latencies unless the only thing you use your computer for is benchmarking. I personally don't have a brand preference.
 
Zap said:
Do you really need the 12GB?
Click to expand...

Yeah I often max out my 6GB. Do a lot of multitasking, and I don't like waiting for the hard drive. 😉
Zap said:
Most important thing IMO is that the RAM is rated for 1.5v at published clock/timings. You probably won't need more than 1333MHz data rate, and you probably won't notice any difference in latencies unless the only thing you use your computer for is benchmarking. I personally don't have a brand preference.
Click to expand...
You're probably right about the data rate and timings. I don't really notice any difference running my ram at 1600 or 1200MHz.

These are looking pretty good http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227635
or these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226096

You maybe know of any benchmarks comparing those or others in that price range to the super high end $500+ kits?
If the difference is only measurable in nanoseconds I don't think it's worth it.
 
But memory is so much faster than HDD and so much slower than L2 cache that increases of 20-30% are fairly negligible, relative to the amount that you have (these days). Hence "only being able to see it in benchmarks".
 
velvetpants said:
Hello
I'm thinking about upgrading my ram to 12GB but since my motherboard only has 4 slots, I'll have to get 4GB chips.
Click to expand...

4 slots sounds like dual channel, you want to get them in pairs, not triplets, for max performance.
This means that for 12GB you use 2x4GB + 2x2GB.
 
Why stop at 12 get a 16GB ram. Seriously what do you do ? That you think you need 12 GB ? 6GB is not enough for video editors and DAW . But for gamers and general computer users and multitasking 6GB is enough. He needs triple channel kit first of all or else your not getting the most out of your bandwidth. get 2x 3GB , so get 2 triple channel kits

What do you want speed or bandwidth. Right now no reason to go over 1600Mhz on the RAM so get that.

Triple Channel Kit 2x3GB x 2 = 12GB and I can assure youll never need more then 6GB

So theres your answer
 
he can indeed sacrifice speed for quantity by using all 4 slots. I am also curious as to what he needs all that ram for.
 
Zap said:
Then your solution may be an SSD and not more RAM.
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if he does lots of multi-tasking he DOES need more ram... an SSD improves load times, but that doesn't help more in multi tasking then in single tasking
As for the "waiting for the HDD" thing... well, how does he know its the HDD he is waiting for?

I would like to hear exactly what KIND of multi tasking he is doing that is slow before rendering judgement. But most likely an SSD will be of great benefit.
 
I appreciate your concern, but I think I need it.

I am running 2 virtual machines on a regular basis inside my win 7 OS, Windows XP for old games and stuff like that and Ubuntu, which I have almost always running. Sometimes I even have 3-4 running at a a time.
Just that is 1-2GB at least.
On top of that I like use my computer for mapping, video editing, programming (attempting to) and gaming mostly + some other random things.
I'm maxing out the ram all the time, then it jumps to pagefile, hence waiting for the hard drive.

I would like an SSD, but I don't think they're really cost efficient right now. I think I'll wait till they get bigger and cheaper.

Oh and for those wondering about my motherboard, if you put 4 chips in, it becomes dual channel.
It's kinda weird... actually wish I would've gotten one with 6 slots, but I didn't think I'd ever need more then 6GB 😛
 
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I am running 2 virtual machines on a regular basis inside my win 7 OS, Windows XP for old games and stuff like that and Ubuntu, which I have almost always running. Sometimes I even have 3-4 running at a a time
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What kind of virtual machine do you use for winXP for games? I tried vmware and the MS one and both of them use the CPU to emulate a VERY basic GPU, and as such are unsuitable for gaming. I gave up and started dual booting instead. I would prefer to use a virtual machine for that though if I can.

Just that is 1-2GB at least.
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2GB+ per virtual machine... plus your host OS needs ram... you need a min of 6GB for 2 virtual machines running at the same time within windows 7.

On top of that I like use my computer for mapping, video editing, programming (attempting to) and gaming mostly + some other random things.
I'm maxing out the ram all the time, then it jumps to pagefile, hence waiting for the hard drive.
Click to expand...
Impressive.

I would like an SSD, but I don't think they're really cost efficient right now. I think I'll wait till they get bigger and cheaper.
Click to expand...
If you are doing programming, an SSD can help with compile time (Which are annoyingly long). I am not sure what you mean by mapping, if you mean create maps for games then AFAIK those tend to be fairly intensive and benefit from more RAM, more CPU cores and SSD. 🙂
but anyways, there is new SSD chips right around the corner... if demand isn't too high they should have the price going down and you might get your wish of (more) affordable SSD. The trick really is to buy a really small SSD and just be very specific on what you put on it, only put things on it that benefit from the speed.
 
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taltamir said:
What kind of virtual machine do you use for winXP for games? I tried vmware and the MS one and both of them use the CPU to emulate a VERY basic GPU, and as such are unsuitable for gaming. I gave up and started dual booting instead. I would prefer to use a virtual machine for that though if I can.
Click to expand...
I'm using virtualbox... it supports DX8 and 9. A little buggy still but way better then win7 for those reeeeally old games like Interstate 76 😛

taltamir said:
If you are doing programming, an SSD can help with compile time (Which are annoyingly long). I am not sure what you mean by mapping, if you mean create maps for games then AFAIK those tend to be fairly intensive and benefit from more RAM, more CPU cores and SSD. 🙂
but anyways, there is new SSD chips right around the corner... if demand isn't too high they should have the price going down and you might get your wish of (more) affordable SSD. The trick really is to buy a really small SSD and just be very specific on what you put on it, only put things on it that benefit from the speed.
Click to expand...
I'm not really doing any big programming projects yet, just trying to learn C# and the stuff I'm coding now compiles in seconds so it's not really an issue.
And yes mapping as in maps for games. It needs a lot of ram and cpu power. I think I'd benefit more from a ram upgrade then a faster hard drive in that area since you're working with a lot big textures and models that all need to fit into memory, although compiling times might be quicker with an SSD.
 
Cool, and wow, virtual box is even open source 🙂

Anyways, I agree then that ram is the best upgrade for you. So, what are you getting?
 
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