Mike89 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I currently have 2 4 gigs sticks of Corsair DDR3 1600. I'm thinking of going to 16 gigs of memory. I am currently running the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboard with a 3770K cpu overclocked to 4.4 gigs. I know in the past with previous generation chipset motherboards, running 4 sticks of memory was not the greatest thing to do when overclocking and could cause a lot of problems. I'm wondering how the Z77 motherboards handle 4 sticks of ram when overclocking. I ask this because I'm either going to go with 2 more sticks of 4 gig memory (which would make it 4 sticks) or just take the 2 sticks out and go with 2 8 gigs sticks (to stay with 2 sticks). Buying two more sticks would be cheaper but I'd hate to do that and end up with issues running the speed I am that I didn't have before. So what do you overclockers think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 two 8 gig compatible sticks are strongly recommended and supported in case you have an issue with stability. adding ram to your current pair is not supported. plus overclocking 2 sticks stand a much better chance of success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike89 Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 I'm only overclocking the cpu, not the memory (running it at it's rated 1600) but I think I see where you are coming from. Kinda makes one wonder why they keep putting 4 memory slots on the boards if the memory makers are not going to support it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 It's not that the memory makers support using all four slots. It's just not supported or recommended to add memory to your existing memory. If you bought a 4 stick matched kit , then it would be just fine. A lot of times adding memory to your existing causes all kinds of stability issues (even if you have two kits of the same part number) This is what Synthohol was alluding to. Yes, it is cheaper to just add two more sticks, but it could eventually cost you more in the long run in lost hours of troubleshooting, RMA's and so on. So ditching your two sticks for a matched four stick kit or a higher capacity two stick kit would be the best route to go. and your question about overclocking with four sticks vs two boils down to the load put on the memory controller. You'lll achieve higher memory overclocks with just two sticks vs four because of the difference in that load. It could also impact your CPU OC as well in the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I'm only overclocking the cpu, not the memory (running it at it's rated 1600). anything over 1333 is an overclock. 1600 is an XMP profile (eXtreme Memory Profile) with accent on Extreme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 anything over 1333 is an overclock. 1600 is an XMP profile (eXtreme Memory Profile) with accent on Extreme. Hey Synthohol, not on the Ivybridge CPU's. They support 1600mhz natively.;): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 the ram is overclocked as it natively 1333, thats what i meant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike89 Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 The ram I'm using is DDR3 1600. Why would it be natively 1333? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthohol Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 1600 is an XMP profile. the JEDEC/SPD is 1333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted January 14, 2013 Share Posted January 14, 2013 The ram I'm using is DDR3 1600. Why would it be natively 1333? What synthohol is getting at is there is no memory with a SPD rating of 1600mhz...at least not yet . It has nothing to do with what your running them at or what your CPU supports. Even though your CPU supports 1600mhz natively you still need to enable the XMP profile which is basically overclocking just the memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike89 Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 Played it safe and got myself two 8 gigs sticks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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