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Can I use 3 x DDR3 memory sticks on one motherboard, or do I need to use 2x or 4x?
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Can I use 3 x DDR3 memory sticks on one motherboard, or do I need to use 2x or 4x?

Building a new computer this days for my home. RAM prices has increased very here i Norway, and to cut cost, I think I just start with 24 GB RAM on the computer.
I have already got two 8 GB, but then I have been starting to think that 16 GB can be little low, since I'm going to run at least one virtual server on it.
So then I think I will go for 24 GB. Can I just buy one more 8 GB stick, or do I need to buy 2 x 4 GB stick to get this to work?

I'm hoping that I can buy just one 8 GB stick, since then I can buy another 8 GB if I need to later on.

The motherboard I have...

Comments

  • You don't have to use an even number of ram modules. Just make sure they are all compatible with each other and the motherboard.

  • You can use 3x8GB sticks if you want, but then it will not run as dual channel RAM so it would be slower. 2x8GB + 2x4GB would be better (faster, dual channel).

  • GiulioGiulio Member
    edited January 2015

    It will work, but if you have dual channel mobo, an even number would be better (for overrall performance).

  • on my new streaming machine am running x3 4GB DDR3 1600 and they are working fine and dual channel apparently

    http://i.imgur.com/meQ7bY6.png

  • @rds100 said:
    You can use 3x8GB sticks if you want, but then it will not run as dual channel RAM so it would be slower. 2x8GB + 2x4GB would be better (faster, dual channel).

    How much slower are we talking about? Just some ms, or will the system be very slow?

  • teppeikunteppeikun Member
    edited January 2015

    You can use , but using even numbers of memory modules with the same size , is better .

  • @myhken said:
    How much slower are we talking about? Just some ms, or will the system be very slow?

    It won't be noticeable for general usage. Unless you're using a ramdisk, then you will see that performance advantage that dual channel(or tri-channel or quad channel depending on your motherboard) brings.

  • myhken said: How much slower are we talking about? Just some ms, or will the system be very slow?

    The transfer speed of single channel vs dual channel is probably something like ~8000MB/s vs ~16000MB/s, which is probably still several times faster than your old socket 775 system with DDR2 RAM (which i think does less than 2000MB/s). And also there is CPU cache, so not all data needs to be transferred from the RAM sticks. Also most of the slowness in computer system is felt as a result of io slowness, not because the CPU was loaded at 100% and couldn't cope with your requests. So it's hard to tell how much slower it will feel because of the single channel memory. Probably will not be a huge deal, unless you want to do some very CPU / computational intensive tasks, like raytracing, etc.

  • @teppeikun said:
    You can use , but using even numbers of memory modules with the same size , is better .

    I understand, but the cost is around $100 per 8 GB memory module. I have just spent $2000 on the computer. Putting in $200 more just now is not the best thing for my wallet. I can get 2 x 4 GB modules for just under $100, but that is not the same brand as the 8 GB modules.

    So what will be best, one more 8 GB module (the complete same module as the two others) or 2 x 4 GB modules from another brand.
    (I understand what is absolute best, thats 4 x 8 GB of the same brand, but this is not happen just now)

  • I'd say go with just 2x8GB RAM, use it for a few months, if you feel 16GB is not enough for you buy additional 2x8GB after two months.
    16GB is plenty of RAM, unless you are running something braindead like windows on the box.

  • There is no more significant difference between them in modern computers.

  • @myhken said:

    If you go for 1 stick, then you will have a better future upgrade path. If you go for 2 sticks, your max ram will be limited, but if you don't plan to max it out so it wouldn't have mattered anyway. But make sure that you are getting the two sticks with the same speed(1333 or 1600mhz) as well as the same timing.

  • @rds100 thanks. The main task to this computer is to server as a "NAS" with lots of disk, serving my Media Center pc for my TV, and then some backups etc from my home server.
    The second task, will be to run a virtual machine in Vmware to host the old computer that I change out, or some of its task) Therefor 8 GB extra memory, for the old computer did only have 8 GB. And it will run fine with 4 GB.

  • @rds100 said:
    I'd say go with just 2x8GB RAM, use it for a few months, if you feel 16GB is not enough for you buy additional 2x8GB after two months.
    16GB is plenty of RAM, unless you are running something braindead like windows on the box.

    Of course I will run Windows Server 2012 R2 on the server. So 16 GB is not so much then.

  • Better 2x4GB and next times add 2x4 or 2x8.

  • A NAS can run just fine with just 1GB of memory. So i think 16GB of RAM for the whole thing would be more than enough.

  • myhken said: Of course I will run Windows Server 2012 R2 on the server. So 16 GB is not so much then.

    But why? Run linux, make a KVM VM instead of vmware. Windows is... And besides, do you have a legal windows server license?

  • myhkenmyhken Member
    edited January 2015

    @rds100 said:
    A NAS can run just fine with just 1GB of memory. So i think 16GB of RAM for the whole thing would be more than enough.

    Yea, the plan was only 8 GB of RAM. Then I wanted to run a virtual machine on it, so I upgraded the CPU (from Pentium) to core i5, and increased the RAM to 16 GB.

  • @rds100 said:
    And besides, do you have a legal windows server license?

    Of course, I have been a Microsoft BizSpark member, and have lots of licenses that I can use for production servers (check it out if you don't believe me) (but this is not a production server, just a internal NAS on my local network).

  • I don't know... i personally wouldn't use windows, but if that is what you feel comfortable with, so be it :) I still say try it with just 16GB RAM, if you are not satisfied with the performance you can upgrade later.

  • I just found some 4 GB DDR3 modules I had from another computer I upgraded from 16 B to 32 GB. But the RAM is at 1333 Mhz, not 1600 Mhz like the new one.
    I know that the speed is set down to 1333 on that 1600 if I mix, but for this use, will it work? I think I just try, if the computer is slow or unstable I can take out the 2 x 4 GB modules, and then just upgrade when my wallet says it ok :D

  • TarZZ92TarZZ92 Member
    edited January 2015

    You just need to up the RAM speed in BIOS @myhken if speeds are different they will all go at lowest ram speed

    Thanked by 1myhken
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