Ram

[Methodical]

Is it best to get 2x sticks of 4x sticks?  Is there a performance difference at all?  I am going to go with 32gb DDR4 3000 for my build and I don't know if I should get 2x 16gb sticks or 4x 8gb sticks.  I've seen where the 4x sticks can be more expensive than the 2x sticks such as Corsair LPX ram. and because of cost I am leaning toward 2x 16gb sticks.  
 
Thanks...Al

[Trey222]

2 minutes ago, Methodical said:

Is it best to get 2x sticks of 4x sticks?  Is there a performance difference at all?  I am going to go with 32gb DDR4 3000 for my build and I don't know if I should get 2x 16gb sticks or 4x 8gb sticks.  I've seen where the 4x sticks can be more expensive than the 2x sticks such as Corsair LPX ram. and because of cost I am leaning toward 2x 16gb sticks.  
 
Thanks...Al

What is your CPU?

[grep.username]

A lot of this will depend on whether or not you can take advantage of multi-channel memory. Like @Trey222 mentions above, your CPU will determine if you can take advantage of multi-channel memory or not. Also check that your motherboard supports multi-channel memory in the configuration that you desire. The new Intel Skylake processors, for example, don't support quad-channel memory.

If your processor and motherboard support multi-channel memory, go for gold and get a quad-channel memory kit. There are performance gains from having a quad-channel kit installed. See the following link that shows results from some tests run on dual-channel memory vs. quad-channel memory.(http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4416/intel_x79_quad_channel_and_z68_dual_channel_memory_performance_analysis/index5.html)

ONE MAJOR WARNING: You can't just go buy four sticks of ram and slot them and expect them to work as a quad-channel kit. (The same applies to two dual-channel memory kits.) When you are looking to fill out four slots on a motherboard that support quad-channel kits, you need to buy the ram in a kit. They will often be labelled as a quad-channel kit. This indicates that they have been tested in this type of configuration and that everything should work out just fine when installed.

Hope some of this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Methodical]

18 minutes ago, Trey222 said:

What is your CPU?

5930k

[Methodical]

6 minutes ago, grep.username said:

A lot of this will depend on whether or not you can take advantage of multi-channel memory. Like @Trey222 mentions above, your CPU will determine if you can take advantage of multi-channel memory or not. Also check that your motherboard supports multi-channel memory in the configuration that you desire. The new Intel Skylake processors, for example, don't support quad-channel memory.

If your processor and motherboard support multi-channel memory, go for gold and get a quad-channel memory kit. There are performance gains from having a quad-channel kit installed. See the following link that shows results from some tests run on dual-channel memory vs. quad-channel memory.(http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/4416/intel_x79_quad_channel_and_z68_dual_channel_memory_performance_analysis/index5.html)

ONE MAJOR WARNING: You can't just go buy four sticks of ram and slot them and expect them to work as a quad-channel kit. (The same applies to two dual-channel memory kits.) When you are looking to fill out four slots on a motherboard that support quad-channel kits, you need to buy the ram in a kit. They will often be labelled as a quad-channel kit. This indicates that they have been tested in this type of configuration and that everything should work out just fine when installed.

Hope some of this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for chiming in and providing the link.