Need some help with clearance ram/cooler clearance issues.

Silly Ducklings · May 3, 2017

So I'm helping a friend build a PC for the first time, and I need to know if I can fit 4x8 dominator platinum into an X99-A II motherboard with a dark rock pro 3 (the big one). I know the ram is way too tall, but I was wondering if it would fit if I put two on the end of each side? If not, we'll just go with some corsair LPX.

Also as a side note, while I was looking over the manual for the motherboard, I read this in the memory section "You may install 2 GB, 4 GB, and 8 GB unbuffered and non-ECC DDR4 DIMMs into the DIMM sockets." so does that mean 2x16 isn't compatible?

Spork829 · May 3, 2017

The cooler probably has a memory height specification, though I can't find it on the product page for the DRP3. And 2x16GB should work, though I would go w/ the LPX to be safe because I think if you only want two dimms, you'll probably have to use either ~~slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, which either way puts one in the way of the cooler.~~ Edit: I think it would actually be 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, still the same issue though.

Silly Ducklings · May 3, 2017

9 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

The cooler probably has a memory height specification, though I can't find it on the product page for the DRP3. And 2x16GB should work, though I would go w/ the LPX to be safe because I think if you only want two dimms, you'll probably have to use either slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4, which either way puts one in the way of the cooler.

I've read between 40mm and 45mms, and the dominator platinum is around 55mms IIRC. I was less asking about the clearance of the ram itself, and more about if I could put the ram in a wonky configuration on the motherboard and still have it work properly. I think I could get it to fit If I put two of the 8 gig platinum dimms on slot 1 and 2 on the left side and 3 and 4 on the right side, but I doubt that would work properly.

Still confused about the 2 sticks of 16 gigs though, maybe "unbuffered" means some fancy thing I don't understand and doesn't apply to normal ram...? Hopefully that's the case, since we'll probably be getting 2x16 LPX dimms instead of platinums.

Spork829 · May 3, 2017

Just now, Silly Ducklings said:

I've read between 40mm and 45mms, and the dominator platinum is around 55mms IIRC. I was less asking about the clearance of the ram itself, and more about if I could put the ram in a wonky configuration on the motherboard and still have it work properly. I think I could get it to fit If I put two on each end of it, but I doubt that would work properly.

Still confused about the 2 sticks of 16 gigs though, maybe "unbuffered" means some fancy thing I don't understand and doesn't apply to normal ram...? Hopefully that's the case, since we'll probably be getting 2x16 LPX dimms instead of platinums.

The config you're talking about with the RAM in slots 1 and 4 would likely work, but I think you won't be running in dual channel, meaning a small hit to performance. There's no way an X99 board with 4 slots doesn't support 2x16GB DIMMS, so as for the capacity I also think you're fine. Do you need to go with that config though? Unless he's going to want to upgrade to a capacity exceeding 32GB, I would prob just go 4x8GB for safety's sake, depending on how easy returns will be for wherever you're buying everything from.

Spork829 · May 3, 2017

9 minutes ago, Silly Ducklings said:

Still confused about the 2 sticks of 16 gigs though, maybe "unbuffered" means some fancy thing I don't understand and doesn't apply to normal ram...? Hopefully that's the case, since we'll probably be getting 2x16 LPX dimms instead of platinums.

Oh yeah forgot to mention that unbuffered just means there's a direct connection to the memory controller, pretty much all RAM is unbuffered these days.

Silly Ducklings · May 3, 2017

11 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

The config you're talking about with the RAM in slots 1 and 4 would likely work, but I think you won't be running in dual channel, meaning a small hit to performance. There's no way an X99 board with 4 slots doesn't support 2x16GB DIMMS, so as for the capacity I also think you're fine. Do you need to go with that config though? Unless he's going to want to upgrade to a capacity exceeding 32GB, I would prob just go 4x8GB for safety's sake, depending on how easy returns will be for wherever you're buying everything from.

Yeah, not possible to support 128 GB of ram while not supporting 16 GB dimms, but since the manual seems to contradict that i'll just go with 4x8 LPX dimms. Thanks for the help man.