Help RAM Dual channel or Quad Channel KITS

[KingSaber]

If I have a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots at 64GB max and is Dual Channel memory, Is it better to use 2 sets of 2x8GB dual channel kits or 1 set of 4x8GB quad channel kit or is there a set of 4x8GB dual channel kit? reason being I want to use all my DIMM slots for RGB.

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, KingSaber said:

If I have a motherboard with 4 DIMM slots at 64GB max and is Dual Channel memory, Is it better to use 2 sets of 2x8GB dual channel kits or 1 set of 4x8GB quad channel kit or is there a set of 4x8GB dual channel kit? reason being I want to use all my DIMM slots for RGB.

Does your CPU support quad-channel? The number of slots on the mobo is not the same thing as how many channels you got.

 

EDIT: Some clarification: if your CPU supports only dual-channel, you can put 4 sticks in and they'll still run only in dual-channel. That said, it doesn't hurt or benefit your performance.

[KingSaber]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Does your CPU support quad-channel? The number of slots on the mobo is not the same thing as how many channels you got.

lets say I have an ASUS ROG strix b450-f it has 4 dimm slots but only say dual channel

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, KingSaber said:

ASUS ROG strix b450-f

That's a mobo, not a CPU.

[KingSaber]

Just now, WereCatf said:

That's a mobo, not a CPU.

Sorry was planning on using a ryzen 5 3600

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, KingSaber said:

Sorry was planning on using a ryzen 5 3600

It doesn't support quad-channel.

[KingSaber]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

It doesn't support quad-channel.

I understand but is it still possible to use 2 sets of 2x8GB dual channel kits to occupy all 4 dimm slots?

 

[WereCatf]

Just now, KingSaber said:

I understand but is it still possible to use 2 sets of 2x8GB dual channel kits to occupy all 4 dimm slots?

Yes, like I already said in the first post.

[KingSaber]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Yes, like I already said in the first post.

So yes it will still run as dual channel but which is better? 4x8gb(quad channel kit) or the 2 sets of 2x8gb(dual channel kit)? Just want to know which kits would save me a couple bucks.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

9 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

That's a mobo, not a CPU.

... and that's enough

 

@KingSaber, the CPU+motherboard you are planning to use support Dual Channel RAM only. That means that you can have 1 dimm per channel (using two slots) or 2 dimms per channel (using 4 slots), but it will always be Dual Channel anyway. Bear in mind, CPU+motherboard (typically, both support the same) is the only determinant of how many channels you can use.

Of course, if you use only 1 dimm, it will run in single channel mode.

 

So, what about these "dual channel" and "quad channel" RAM kits? It's marketing. You can always put 4 identical sticks in a quad-channel motherboard, and it will run in quad-channel mode, regardless of where they come from. In a dual-channel motherboard, you can use 2, or in your case up to 4, identical sticks, and have them run in dual channel mode, regardless of how you bought them. In fact, you can use non-identical sticks in many configurations and still have them run in dual channel mode, but you have to be more careful with the details n those cases.

 

The only thing these kits do is to tell you that these sticks have been tested to run, all of them together, at the advertised frequency and timings, in some test PC. It's not even a guarantee that they will work at those settings in your PC. But theoretically there could be tiny differences between sticks that make some of them more similar than others and better suited to reach the advertised OC together. Mostly, it doesn't matter.

 

In the case you are considering, that is, buying RAM sticks of the same advertised specs, just bundled in different kits, it will all be the same. Just bear in mind that it will be easier to get your RAM to run at the advertised speed stably with fewer dimms per channel. Hence, at the margin, 2x8 is a better way to obtain 16GB than 4x4. But, again, 4x4 will also mostly be fine.