2x8GB or 4x4GB?

[Ernesto Espinoza]

Hello, good night everyone
I'd like to know what is more convinient, i've recently bought an used Dell Optiplex 7010 MT, here the specs:
Intel core i5-3550 3.3Ghz Ivy Bridge 3rd Gen.
4gb DDR3 PC3-12800 1600Mhz 
500gb hdd
Radeon hd 7470

So the thing is, it has 4 ram slots
I've been looking to upgrade to 16gb in total
So my computer technical book says the possible configuration to get 16gb is 4x4gb

It's cheaper, at least where i live, to get 2 sticks of 8gb than 4 sticks of 4gb (I wanna sell the one it comes with)
Intel Ark says, my cpu supports up to 32gb of Ram, but not sure if motherboard can cause limitation on this. It's a Q77 Chipset.
So, do you think i must have to install 4x4gb as technical book says?
Or is it the same if i use 2x8gb?
One last question, what does it happen if i buy 2x8gb, and i keep the 4gb stick that came with the computer in its place, i mean, to have 20gb in total?
I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have 2 identical sticks and one different, even if they are same  bus speed.
Thank you so much in advanced,
God bless you.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id do 2x8gb, cheaper and lower power.

[Streetguru]

8 minutes ago, Ernesto Espinoza said:

 

just get 2 8gb sticks and try using all of them, the CPU supports 32GBs, it makes no sense to have 4 slots that doesn't support 32GB since it's not a quad channel platform

[JoostinOnline]

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id do 2x8gb, cheaper and lower power.

Generally a 4 pack of 4GB RAM is cheaper than a 2 pack of 8GB RAM.

[R3ep3r]

I would go for the 16gb with four sticks of four because quad channel seems to be better than the dual channel mode. And yes, as @JoostinOnline said, 4 pack of 4GB is way cheaper than a 2 pack.

[Droidbot]

5 minutes ago, R3ep3r said:

I would go for the 16gb with four sticks of four because quad channel seems to be better than the dual channel mode. And yes, as @JoostinOnline said, 4 pack of 4GB is way cheaper than a 2 pack.

4x4 is a supported config but IVB doesn't support quadchannel. Only dualchannel.

And 2x8 is significantly cheaper - check PCPartPicker, in the US anyway the cheapest 2x8 kit is $70 whereas cheapest 4x4 is $95

[manikyath]

31 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Generally a 4 pack of 4GB RAM is cheaper than a 2 pack of 8GB RAM.

11 minutes ago, R3ep3r said:

I would go for the 16gb with four sticks of four because quad channel seems to be better than the dual channel mode. And yes, as @JoostinOnline said, 4 pack of 4GB is way cheaper than a 2 pack.

strangely enough, sorting by price on pcpp, 2x8 is cheaper right now...

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

strangely enough, sorting by price on pcpp, 2x8 is cheaper right now...

Are they the same kinds of RAM?  Frequency and latency has a big effect on price (and performance).

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

Are they the same kinds of RAM?  Frequency and latency has a big effect on price (and performance).

i quite literally just sorted by price, selected 2x8 and 4x4, and selected DDR3 1600 and DDR3 1333

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

Are they the same kinds of RAM?  Frequency and latency has a big effect on price (and performance).

Not on any arch besides Skylake and up. They're the same anyway, and Q77 will limit him to 1600Mhz

[R3ep3r]

5 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

4x4 is a supported config but IVB doesn't support quadchannel. Only dualchannel.

And 2x8 is significantly cheaper - check PCPartPicker, in the US anyway the cheapest 2x8 kit is $70 whereas cheapest 4x4 is $95

You are right but that is for US. I would like to do an upgrade for my ram too, but sadly in my country 2 sticks of eight are kinda expensive(150$) whilst 4 sticks of four are around 100$.

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, R3ep3r said:

You are right but that is for US. I would like to do an upgrade for my ram too, but sadly in my country 2 sticks of eight are kinda expensive(150$) whilst 4 sticks of four are around 100$.

True.. I have to sell my RAM if I were to upgrade to 16 since I'm on ITX and have only two DIMM slots populated with 4GB sticks

[JoostinOnline]

5 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i quite literally just sorted by price, selected 2x8 and 4x4, and selected DDR3 1600 and DDR3 1333

Interesting.  Prices have been going crazy lately on flash in the past few months though, due to the worldwide shortage.

4 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Not on any arch besides Skylake and up. They're the same anyway, and Q77 will limit him to 1600Mhz

Not true.  There's a noticeable difference when switching between different frequencies and latencies, regardless of the architecture.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

Interesting.  Prices have been going crazy lately on flash in the past few months though, due to the worldwide shortage.

and at this point, 4GB sticks are going into the "legacy" side of things, where it's in lower demand (strangely enough, lower demand -> lower production amounts -> higher cost per stick)

[Droidbot]

5 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

Interesting.  Prices have been going crazy lately on flash in the past few months though, due to the worldwide shortage.

Not true.  There's a noticeable difference when switching between different frequencies and latencies.

Latencies, yes. Frequencies, no. On Skylake, yes. On Haswell or lower, not that much. 

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

and at this point, 4GB sticks are going into the "legacy" side of things, where it's in lower demand (strangely enough, lower demand -> lower production amounts -> higher cost per stick)

Well when you think about it, why make 4GB sticks when 8GB sticks do the same job for most systems?

Why bother making 256MB chips for x price + manufacturing cost and sell it for $20 a stick as 4GB, when you can make 512MB chips for x price + a little bit more + manufacturing cost and sell it for $35 a stick as 8GB? 

[JoostinOnline]

3 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Latencies, yes. Frequencies, no. On Skylake, yes. On Haswell or lower, not that much. 

Source?

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

Source?

Haswell (4670k) 

i5 6500 (Skylake)

[marshmallowbam]

In all honesty the choice is yours. I depends on if you want upgradeability or(which you will already be at the cap with 16gb) or you want speed. Generally speaking running with lower chips spread across more sockets will get you better speed out of the RAM. I ran a mismatched set of chips in 2 1/2 for the longest time. I did everything completely wrong when it comes to ram, they were all different freq's, capacities, and timings, while only running 3 chips. The computer proudly chugged along for about 4 years before my cpu bit the dust. Its alost easier on the board if you go 4 x 4 due the the decrease of voltage on the individual sockets on the board.

[JoostinOnline]

46 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Haswell (4670k) 

i5 6500 (Skylake)

How does that prove you right?  The frequency definitely affected the fps on both architectures.

[JoostinOnline]

7 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

Remember, always ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS, go for the higher capacity RAM sticks even if it means a performance loss and slightly increased cost per GB.

 

1. higher capacity RAM has FAR more resale value over time when it is tome to part out your PC. For example, 1GB sticks of DDR2 go on ebay for next to nothing (like $1). On the other hand, 2GB sticks of DDR2 go on ebay for $10 a piece.

 

2. Higher capacity RAM generally leaves empty slots for a RAM upgrade meaning it could cost you less to upgrade your RAM down the line.

 

You games won't take a hit because those 8GB sticks are going to be run in dual-channel. Although even if you had a single stick of RAM, you would only lose like 3fps and get far more for your RAM later on.

That system won't make use of more than 16GB.  He'd have to upgrade the CPU and GPU, in which case you'd just switch to another system.   Better to save $50 and get full performance than get an extra two slots that will always stay empty.

 

I see your point about resale value, but if you upgrade you'd probably just sell the system as a whole, so it doesn't really matter.

 

To be honest, I think it's more practical to just get 8GB total.

[JoostinOnline]

4 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

I always part my systems out as I get more money for it than as a whole. Also if you had read what OP said, 2x8GB sticks is cheaper than 4x4GB sticks. So I really don't see a reason to get 4x4GB sticks then.

I missed that.  I thought @R3ep3r was the OP.

[Droidbot]

32 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

How does that prove you right?  The frequency definitely affected the fps on both architectures.

Not in all situations, and definitely a lot more on Skylake than Haswell. 

[JoostinOnline]

41 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Not in all situations, and definitely a lot more on Skylake than Haswell. 

You don't even know if it was because of the architecture.  The difference could have been because of the CPU performance.  They also were very different RAM speeds.  Your assumption isn't based on any real evidence.

 

But anyway, back to my point.  There's no reason to upgrade that system past 8GB.

[Aniallation]

2x8. Leaves room for future upgrades if ever need be (you never know)

 

4 hours ago, R3ep3r said:

I would go for the 16gb with four sticks of four because quad channel seems to be better than the dual channel mode. And yes, as @JoostinOnline said, 4 pack of 4GB is way cheaper than a 2 pack.

No Ivy Bridge compatible platform supports quad-channel RAM

[Nena Trinity]

4x4 looks sexier!