4x8 GB Dominator Memory

[Bjernhart]

Gday and happy friday!

 

I have a question for you guys. What would be best, 2x16 GB or 4x8 GB of RAM.

Which of these two options would be best/give the better performance. The store which I buy all my computer parts, only offers Corsair Dominator Platinum in 2x8GB, there is no option to change this into 2x16GB.

Is there any real difference between having RAM in sets of two or in sets of four? 

 

[JobbelsNL]

Well if you want to upgrade 2X16 but if you are planning to stay on this build and looks use 4

[Oshino Shinobu]

Depends if your board supports quad channel or not. If it does, 4 will give the best performance (provided you put them in the correct slots to utilise quad channel). If not, there's not really any difference in performance, but you may want to consider how many free slots you have if you want to upgrade to more in the future. 

[Bjernhart]

45 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Depends if your board supports quad channel or not. If it does, 4 will give the best performance (provided you put them in the correct slots to utilise quad channel). If not, there's not really any difference in performance, but you may want to consider how many free slots you have if you want to upgrade to more in the future. 

Wow, thanks for reminding me about board compatability, i did not think about checking if my board supports quad channel.

[Oshino Shinobu]

59 minutes ago, Bjernhart said:

Wow, thanks for reminding me about board compatability, i did not think about checking if my board supports quad channel.

Generally, if it has 4 slots, it only supports dual channel (and single channel). If it has 8 or more, it may support quad channel. 

 

There's probably exceptions (there always are -.-) with some platforms, where a 4 slot board supports quad channel, but most don't. 

[Bjernhart]

32 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Generally, if it has 4 slots, it only supports dual channel (and single channel). If it has 8 or more, it may support quad channel. 

 

There's probably exceptions (there always are -.-) with some platforms, where a 4 slot board supports quad channel, but most don't. 

But isn't it possible to use 4 memory sticks (that are identical of course) in a board that have 4 memory slots?

Will the performance suffer if I populate all 4 memory slots , say with 4x8GB of memory, for a total of 32GB.

Or will I start encounter stability issues by doing so? 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, Bjernhart said:

But isn't it possible to use 4 memory sticks (that are identical of course) in a board that have 4 memory slots?

Will the performance suffer if I populate all 4 memory slots , say with 4x8GB of memory.

Or will I start encounter stability issues by doing so? 

It's perfectly possible and intended to be used that way if you want to. 

 

In a dual channel (channels are not the same as slots BTW) motherboard with 4 slots, you can populate all 4 slots but it will still run it dual channel mode. Performance will be the same whether you use 2 larger sticks or 4 smaller sticks. Stability shouldn't be an issue if you're buying a kit of 4 sticks as they will have been tested and confirmed to work together well. You can also run sticks from different kits together just fine, but it's generally best to go with a single kit to ensure they'll work well together. 

[Bjernhart]

3 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It's perfectly possible and intended to be used that way if you want to. 

 

In a dual channel (channels are not the same as slots BTW) motherboard with 4 slots, you can populate all 4 slots but it will still run it dual channel mode. Performance will be the same whether you use 2 larger sticks or 4 smaller sticks. Stability shouldn't be an issue if you're buying a kit of 4 sticks as they will have been tested and confirmed to work together well. You can also run sticks from different kits together just fine, but it's generally best to go with a single kit to ensure they'll work well together. 

My plan was to buy a total of 32GB of dominator platinum, 2x16GB to be more exact. I  , however the store from which I buy my computer parts only offer them in 2x8GB, which means in order for me to get 32GB in total, i'll need 4x8GB.

[Bjernhart]

On 11/17/2017 at 1:53 PM, Oshino Shinobu said:

It's perfectly possible and intended to be used that way if you want to. 

 

In a dual channel (channels are not the same as slots BTW) motherboard with 4 slots, you can populate all 4 slots but it will still run it dual channel mode. Performance will be the same whether you use 2 larger sticks or 4 smaller sticks. Stability shouldn't be an issue if you're buying a kit of 4 sticks as they will have been tested and confirmed to work together well. You can also run sticks from different kits together just fine, but it's generally best to go with a single kit to ensure they'll work well together. 

I just found out that the store i'm planning to buy from, does NOT offer Dominator Platinums in sets of 4 in a single kit.

If I want the intended RAM i'll need to buy 2 kits, since they only come in sets of 2. Any suggestions?

[Oshino Shinobu]

7 minutes ago, Bjernhart said:

I just found out that the store i'm planning to buy from, does NOT offer Dominator Platinums in sets of 4 in a single kit.

If I want the intended RAM i'll need to buy 2 kits, since they only come in sets of 2. Any suggestions?

They should work fine together if they have the same specs. Getting all of them from one kit is the ideal, but it's not necessary for them to work. My Dominator Platinums were from 2 different kits and worked fine together. If you can order two of the same kit, you shouldn't have any problems.