TomBrooklyn Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Is it better to get a 4x4GB set of RAM than two pairs of the exact same 2x4GB modules? The problem I see is that there are not many 4x4 packages offered, and when you do find them, they might cost more than two 2x4 deals. It seems there are very few 16GB packages. I guess games don't need 16 GB, and there are relatively few photo editors building their own computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Absolutely, it better to buy a matched 16gig kit vs 2 8's. It has been proven many times that using two kits of the exact same part number can cause problems. Corsair packages their memory to be used as one kit per mb and do not suggest or support using more than one kit per MB. Often the end result is having to run at reduced speeds to get two kits to play nice with each other. If they run at all together. Corsair uses up to 9 different IC and various different PCB's to build their modules. All it takes is one small difference between the two kits and you have issues. With that said if you do choose to use two kits vs one and they do not work as advertised you have nothing to fall back on because it is a non supported configuration. Yes it may be cheaper to purchase two kits vs one, but the price you end up paying in the end may be more than what it would have cost you to buy the matched kit. Now that you know the technical aspect of that i can tell you from personal experience that it is better to use one kit of the capacity you want to end up with right off the bat.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomBrooklyn Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 Hi peanutz, That's interesting--and disturbing. It seems personal computing, with this kind of fickle behavior in components, is still not ready for prime time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Hi peanutz, That's interesting--and disturbing. It seems personal computing, with this kind of fickle behavior in components, is still not ready for prime time. Actually, it has always been that way. It's just been more important now that memory controllers have been moved to the CPU instead of the MB to have matched modules. Older system could get away with it and just default to the lowest speed. With newer CPU's it isn't that easy. Just spend some time browsing the forums here and you will find literally hundreds of posts that will confirm this information. I hope it helps some Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomBrooklyn Posted December 19, 2011 Author Share Posted December 19, 2011 Hi peanutz, Just to ensure I was clear enough, when I referred to two pairs of memory, I meant the exact same memory--brand, model, and specs--purchased at the same time from the same supplier. Are we talking about the same thing? (I edited my original post to make the above more obvious.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted December 19, 2011 Share Posted December 19, 2011 Hi peanutz, Just to ensure I was clear enough, when I referred to two pairs of memory, I meant the exact same memory--brand, model, and specs--purchased at the same time from the same supplier. Are we talking about the same thing? (I edited my original post to make the above more obvious.) Yuppers. We are talking the exact same thing. Two identical kits can actually be incompatible with each other. I know it sounds funny and should work. In reality you have less than a 50 percent chance that they would run at rated speed. It can also cause blue screens, boot problems and so on. At best if you had to reduce the frequency, you just defeated the purpose of buying faster RAM. So , say 1600mhz RAM may have to be run at 1333 or even 1066mhz to get them to run together. And then there is the chance they just wont run together at all. I know it sounds funny, but it is very true. The potential you could end up spending could far exceed the extra price for the 16 gig kit. Then you will also be guaranteed that all the modules will be matched and run the exact same way and achieve what ever speed they are rated for. However there are still no guaranteed that your cpu will overclock past 1333mhz. That is Intels max supported frequency, anything over that is overclocking and all bets are off. I will say that 99 percent of the newer CPU's out there should be able to hit 1600mhz no sweat! Some will run 1866 and fewer than that can hit 2000mhz without having to go water cooling I guess if anything it's food for thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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