Memory slot colors & cooler issue

[Giganthrax]

Hello.

 

I plan to buy an X370 Pro for my new Ryzen 1600x system. I intend to get a 16gb 3200mhz dual channel kit for it. 

 

However, I currently have a Noctua NH-U14S air cooler that, due to size, blocks one of my ram slots (a black one) on my current motherboard (which is not an issue since I only have one ram stick anyway). The X370 has 4 ram slots, two black, and two gray, and I'm fairly sure the cooler is going to be blocking a black slot there as well.

 

Will putting both ram sticks into gray slots instead of black slots affect performance? And if so, is it then a better idea to get a single 16gb stick and put it in the one remaining black slot, instead of having two 8gb sticks in the two gray slots? Or am I just worrying about nothing. 

 

Also, I really like this cooler and don't want to replace it. 

[VK707]

On most Boards either 2/4 or 1/3 (when talking 4 slots total) will work just fine but you may wanna consult the manual of your particular Board. In Addition i wouldnt recommend going Single Channel over Dual as far as performance is concerned.

[jiyeon]

Ideally when you have four total slots and two avaliable RAM sticks at your disposal, you should use the 2nd and 4th slots, so the grey slots.

 

You should be doing:
A1: None
A2: 8GB stick

B1: None

B2: 8GB stick

 

A1 is the closest to your CPU.

[Giganthrax]

That's perfect. Thanks a lot for the quick answers guys.  

[partymarty]

I've build like 15 pc's last 2 years and I never seen any motherboard recommend to use slot 1 and 3 (in your case the Black DIMMS).

It's always slot 2 and 4.

 

In general it's the way @seoz said in the earlier post.

[VK707]

3 minutes ago, partymarty said:

I've build like 15 pc's last 2 years and I never seen any motherboard recommend to use slot 1 and 3 (in your case the Black DIMMS).

It's always slot 2 and 4.

 

In general it's the way @seoz said in the earlier post.

Generally speaking that is true, but there are boards with 1/2 and 3/4 (mostly old legacy hardware) or recommends to use 1/3 first ^^;

2/4 being the de facto default these days is correct though.