RAM Slots Question [HELP]

[RaymondC]

Hello guys,

 

I have a desktop and I recently just took a peek at CPU-Z to see a rundown of my componenets. On the SPD section, I have noticed that Slot #1 houses 4gb Memory and Slot #2 houses 8gb Memory.

 

Is it better to move 8gb into slot #1 and 4gb into slot #2?

 

I am new to desktop builds, so thank you for understanding.

 

Thank you.

[BetaEffect]

36 minutes ago, RaymondC said:

Is it better to move 8gb into slot #1 and 4gb into slot #2?

That wouldn't make any differents if your mainboard has only two dimm slots.

Maybe you should also give use your  mainboard model.

[Tedstonegenious]

There is no difference between slot #1 and #2, the only reason for the numbers is to make troubleshooting a bit easier. So it doesn't matter which DRAM stick is in which slot. There is, however, a caviot. If you motherboard has four or more slots for ram, then the chances are that it supports more than one memory channel. Think of a memory channel as a lane for the data to travel between you CPU and ram. The more lanes you have, the more bandwidth. and that can help with performance depending on what cpu you are dealing with (Ryzen loves its bandwidth). So you'll want to balance it among the channels so you can use all the channels. Each channel supports up to two DIMMS, so a two slot board only has one channel and a four slot board has 2 channels. 6 or more DIMMS usually belong to server or ultra-high end boards, so I'll assume that not your configuration. Basically if you have four slots to plug ram into (whats most common), then you want to place the RAM in a way that there is a free slot in between the two RAM modules. Thanks to how they place the modules, this will guarantee that you have at least one DIMM on each channel.  If you have two slots (typically among low end/smaller/older boards) then your memory is already properly configured.