Memory Question

If I want to put 32gb of memory in my PC but can only afford let’s say 16gb right now. Would it be better 2 get 2 8gb or 1 16.

4 slot motherboard with 64gb support with one slot possibly covered by the CPU cooler.

1 Like

I’d suggest you to go with a one 16 GB DDR5, if you can afford. If you to make more money, try the guides on FinancePolice.

By this, you can later expand with three slots still remaining.

1 Like

That’s what I was leaning towards. But wasn’t sure how big of a difference 1 16gb would have vs 2 8gb.

How many memory slots?

Typical is 4 - which is two channels, two slots each.

In that case, buy 2x8 and put one DIMM per channel, you will get slightly better performance. This usually looks like this:
Chip-Empty-Chip-Empty

You won’t lose any by filling in the channels later with another 2x8.

Specifics can be found in your motherboard manual, which will also usually suggest what order to fill them in if not using them all.

(Note: this doesn’t apply if you want to be easily going to 64GB after, in that case stick with 1x16’s)

3 Likes

Depends on what the end goal is and preference. If 32gb is the goal, I don’t know the speed difference between 4x8 versus 2x16. If 64gb is the goal (probably overkill), 16gb stick would be the only option.

1 Like

And I don’t think gddr5 ram is out yet for memory sticks is it?

GDDR is for graphics cards, and GDDR5 is current for them.

The current desktop spec is DDR4, previous generation (a couple years old) is DDR3.

2 Likes

Thanks guys! That all makes sense.

1 Like

…um…I forgot what I was going to post. :grin:

(See…the title is "Memory Question…and I forgot what I was going to post…yeah…that was a lot funnier in my head.)

5 Likes

I still have 2x8s that you can take and pay whatever you think is fair if they work. I tried to sell them elsewhere on this forum if you want to see the details. They are just collecting dust currently.

1 Like

I added an extra 16Gb to my system and had no issues at all. They where of course same speed and spec as the original pair of 2x8 this was my way of an upgrade without the upfront cost. Ram is currently coming down in price :slight_smile:

1 Like

While modern motherboard can work with Mis-matched RAM speeds, I always like to keep it the same too.

Had experience as a kid with my first computer with mixed-DIMMs before boards could throttle back to the slowest chip’s speed…took a few years to figure out as it was before I knew anything about computers and I left it to my dad and his work’s IT guy to figure out. We eventually got me a laptop, as it got so bad BSODs were caused by MS Word. With the laptop I began to research how to fix it, which I did. That PC ran my FSX server until it was too old to be built up hardware wise.