Another noob question regarding upgrading RAM

[Weezy]

I was considering upgrading my Adata DDR4 3200 Mhz (4x8GB) RAM and thought about using them in an older PC that will support it, doubling the RAM in that PC. Now to replace the 3200Mhz RAM...

 

I did some research including going to the Asrocks website to find out what the MB supports. According to Asrock, the MB will "support DDR4 non-ECC, un-buffered memory up to 4800+(OC)"

 

Here are the questions I can't seem to find an answer for through Google Research

 

1. If I upgrade to a higher speed, say 4000 or 4400 Mhz, is it possible it may create stability issues if I only enable XMP 2.0 and do not OC them? I know overclocking can create instability, but can the higher Mhz at native  speeds act the same way?

2. Will moving from 4x8GB, 3200Mhz sticks to 2x16GB 4000 (or 4400Mhz) sticks really provide any noticeable improvements?

3. If I decided to just bite the bullet and install 4x16GB sticks of at least 4000Mhz - same question on performance improvements? Lots of windows tabs, lots of media, etc, but no gaming

4. Asrock's website showed compatible RAM with my CPU, below, but it was a bit confusing. It listed many brands with different chips - which chips are considered 'best'? Do I want SS or DS? Do I want one where DIMM Socket Support is just "2" or "2/4". I know if I only use 2 sticks, I would use sockets 2 and 4 and leave 1 and 3 empty. on this MB. Or fill all 4 if I want to give myself a nicer xmas present

 

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-11700K
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
SSD: Corsair MP600 PRO XT 1TB
RAM: Adata DDR4 3200 4x8GB
MBD: Asrock Z590-C/ac

[Alcarin]

37 minutes ago, Weezy said:

1. If I upgrade to a higher speed, say 4000 or 4400 Mhz, is it possible it may create stability issues if I only enable XMP 2.0 and do not OC them? I know overclocking can create instability, but can the higher Mhz at native  speeds act the same way?

2. Will moving from 4x8GB, 3200Mhz sticks to 2x16GB 4000 (or 4400Mhz) sticks really provide any noticeable improvements?

3. If I decided to just bite the bullet and install 4x16GB sticks of at least 4000Mhz - same question on performance improvements? Lots of windows tabs, lots of media, etc, but no gaming

4. Asrock's website showed compatible RAM with my CPU, below, but it was a bit confusing. It listed many brands with different chips - which chips are considered 'best'? Do I want SS or DS? Do I want one where DIMM Socket Support is just "2" or "2/4". I know if I only use 2 sticks, I would use sockets 2 and 4 and leave 1 and 3 empty. on this MB. Or fill all 4 if I want to give myself a nicer xmas present

1. Enabling XMP is technically overclocking your RAM. It's always possible to create instability by enabling it. Enabling XMP is easier and faster than manually overclocking your RAM, but it will be far from an optimized overclock. It's a quick and dirty solution that's fine for most users. If you run into instability, you can try bumping up the RAM voltage a little bit or loosening timings slightly. 
2. On an Intel platform, the performance improvement will be there, but it's not nearly as impactful as on a Ryzen-based system. 
3. Going with 64GB would absolutely set you up for very heavy multitasking for sure. Depending on what you do, you have to ask yourself if it's honestly worth the added expense. 
4. SS or DS means single-sided or double sided, meaning that in single-sided RAM the memory modules will only be mounted on one side of the DIMM and on both sides for double sided. AFAIK this doesn't really have any relevance to performance or stability. The metric that matters more is whether a DIMM is single rank or dual rank, and higher capacity DIMMs are more likely to be dual rank. I'm not really that familiar with the technical stuff regarding single rank vs dual rank memory though.
5. I believe the "Socket support" thing just states how many DIMMs the board supports. Double sided RAM is thicker and also tends to be more likely to be dual rank, so this board would only support two of those, while it can support either 2 or 4 single sided DIMMs. If you put 3 DIMMs in the board, it might "work" but XMP won't work properly, and the memory will be run in single channel I believe. 

[Weezy]

16 hours ago, Alcarin said:

1. Enabling XMP is technically overclocking your RAM. It's always possible to create instability by enabling it. Enabling XMP is easier and faster than manually overclocking your RAM, but it will be far from an optimized overclock. It's a quick and dirty solution that's fine for most users. If you run into instability, you can try bumping up the RAM voltage a little bit or loosening timings slightly. 
2. On an Intel platform, the performance improvement will be there, but it's not nearly as impactful as on a Ryzen-based system. 
3. Going with 64GB would absolutely set you up for very heavy multitasking for sure. Depending on what you do, you have to ask yourself if it's honestly worth the added expense. 
4. SS or DS means single-sided or double sided, meaning that in single-sided RAM the memory modules will only be mounted on one side of the DIMM and on both sides for double sided. AFAIK this doesn't really have any relevance to performance or stability. The metric that matters more is whether a DIMM is single rank or dual rank, and higher capacity DIMMs are more likely to be dual rank. I'm not really that familiar with the technical stuff regarding single rank vs dual rank memory though.
5. I believe the "Socket support" thing just states how many DIMMs the board supports. Double sided RAM is thicker and also tends to be more likely to be dual rank, so this board would only support two of those, while it can support either 2 or 4 single sided DIMMs. If you put 3 DIMMs in the board, it might "work" but XMP won't work properly, and the memory will be run in single channel I believe. 

Appreciate the feedback, thank you. Little by little, i feel I'm "getting there". We'll see if any sales come about on RAM - but thinking once DDR5 has more demand, DDR4 should hopefully drop nicely. Thanks again!