What is a stick of RAM?

[Dankirk]

Hi!

I'm having trouble understanding what a stick of RAM is, is it one RAM module or is it something else?

I think it is one RAM module but I don't know.. I need help because of a Watt calculator pretty much needs to know how many sticks of RAM I'm going to have.. I feel kinda stupid because it feels like I should really know this..

[consoleconvergence2pc]

a stick of RAM is just one module 

[Kayn]

this is one stick of RAM

 

[skullbringer]

stick, bar, module it all describes a individual unit you populate one ram slot with.

 

btw it does hardly impact needed psu output wattage at all.

[Kiwiandapple]

Warning about those wattage calculators, most of them are pretty wrong. And overcalculate what you need. 

As above all stated ^ that is one stick and most of the times you will have either 1, 2 or 4.

[SpamBrie]

1 stick of ram is just a single ram module

[MG2R]

As your original question is already answered, I'm going to answer the implied question:

 

No, you shouldn't trust these online calculators, as they usually overprovision too much (as a safety measure, to reduce liablility concerns). If you want to calculate how much power you'll need to provide, I advise you to employ something like:

[(cpuTdp + gpuTdp) * 2 ] + [(numberOfGpus - 1) * gpuTdp]

You can also read this thread, or this thread to read more views/opinions/facts and other related jazz.

[Dankirk]

okay, thanks so much!

[Faa]

As your original question is already answered, I'm going to answer the implied question:

 

No, you shouldn't trust these online calculators, as they usually overprovision too much (as a safety measure, to reduce liablility concerns). If you want to calculate how much power you'll need to provide, I advise you to employ something like:

[(cpuTdp + gpuTdp) * 2 ] + [(numberOfGpus - 1) * gpuTdp]

You can also read this thread, or this thread to read more views/opinions/facts and other related jazz.

TDP isn't even max power draw.. It's just a cooling spec so I'm not seeing why this formula would be your max power draw. The max power draw is usually higher than the TDP

[MG2R]

TDP isn't even max power draw.. It's just a cooling spec so I'm not seeing why this formula would be your max power draw. The max power draw is usually higher than the TDP

Max continuous power draw will about equal to the max TDP in a stock setting. For peak power draw and an overclock, I double the amount of power needed by one CPU and one GPU.

 

You can read more on why TDP and power draw basically denote the same here.

 

Also never said that this formula gives you the max power draw, just said it would give you a decent value to spec out your PSU.

[Shakaza]

As your original question is already answered, I'm going to answer the implied question:

 

No, you shouldn't trust these online calculators, as they usually overprovision too much (as a safety measure, to reduce liablility concerns). If you want to calculate how much power you'll need to provide, I advise you to employ something like:

[(cpuTdp + gpuTdp) * 2 ] + [(numberOfGpus - 1) * gpuTdp]

You can also read this thread, or this thread to read more views/opinions/facts and other related jazz.

Wait...I have a 95 watt CPU (FX-6100) and a 175 watt GPU (R9 270). If you calculate that out, it comes to 540 watts using your little rule of thumb, while I only have a 500 watt PSU. So, even that calculation can be off in some situations.

[Faa]

Also never said that this formula gives you the max power draw, just said it would give you a decent value to spec out your PSU.

Even if it does it would be pointless. You shouldn't buy a 850W psu if your system pulls max 800W in worst case scenario's eg prime+furmark when your most intensive tasks eg a game aren't even making your system to pull 500W. 
 

 

Wait...I have a 95 watt CPU (FX-6100) and a 175 watt GPU (R9 270). If you calculate that out, it comes to 540 watts using your little rule of thumb, while I only have a 500 watt PSU. So, even that calculation can be off in some situations.

There's no such rule. I used an old 450W psu with the right amps on the 12V for a 3930K+670 for BF3 when every ax860i I received from rma was buzzing. Ofc I never ran prime95 & furmark with that one.

[MG2R]

Wait...I have a 95 watt CPU (FX-6100) and a 175 watt GPU (R9 270). If you calculate that out, it comes to 540 watts using your little rule of thumb, while I only have a 500 watt PSU. So, even that calculation can be off in some situations.

I didn't say it's the be-all-and-end-all. I said it's a good rule to follow. It will usually place your PSU at 50%-60% load under a gaming scenario, which is right at peak efficiency, while at the same not being balls-to-the-walls-overpowered on a multi-GPU setup. It should give a better estimate then most well-known calculators, as those usually factor in a big-ass overpowering-factor to make sure that whatever they say will be able to run the system you're configuring (liability minimization).

 

Of course, If you're building a storage server with a low-end Celeron processor and 24HDD's, this formula will probably be of by quite a bit. It won't be perfect in every scenario, but it gives a pretty decent estimate in most typical gaming rigs.

 

 

Even if it does it would be pointless. You shouldn't buy a 850W psu if your system pulls max 800W in worst case scenario's eg prime+furmark when your most intensive tasks eg a game aren't even making your system to pull 500W. 

OK, now you're just not making any sense to me Where did I say anything like this? Although, it would probably be a pretty good idea to do something like what you're saying. If you're drawing 800W continuous on a stress test, overspeccing your PSU by 5% would make sure that you never overload. It would also make your PSU operate optimally at a typical gaming load, as PSU's are most efficient at 50-60% load.

[Faa]

OK, now you're just not making any sense to me Where did I say anything like this?

You didn't? In games you're not even close to pull that much power from the wall like in worst case scenario's such as folding or mining that's why its pointless to know the max power draw and that formula is pointless as well. We just don't have enough games that are taking the power hungry cpu's such as 3930K's & 8350's to 50% load so the cpu's power consumption is fairly low. On the other hand we have plenty of situations where you can't even get your gpu's to 50% load because of a cpu bottleneck and so on.

[MG2R]

that formula is pointless as well.

Well, believe what you will. I still think you should spec out your PSU to be able to handle at least the combined TDP of your system. For me, a system has to be able to withstand a torture test continuously, 24/7, both thermally and power wise.

[Joshua Ondangan]

just use something like kill a watt and should give you something.

[Opcode]

According to Micron a single chip of 1.5v DDR3 will consume 123.2 mW during an active cycle. Now multiply that by the number of chips on each stick of ram (8 - 16) and you get a peak possible power consumption of around 1971.2 mW. Which translates into 1.9712 watts of power consumption per stick. I guess online power calculators up it to 3 watts just to be on the safe side (1.65v and higher sticks). So yes, I would calculate about 3 watts per stick, a dual channel kit is only 6 watts of power. Nothing I personally would even bother adding into power calculation.