which memory for older pc x58 gigabyte 1st gen i7

got a pc i built 6 years ago...with 4 gigs of RAM. Dont see a reason to upgrade mobo and cpu, as it still does the job for me...but i need more RAM. Its been so long now since the build...im not sure which route to take here...and im scratching my head a bit in regards to deciding on dual or triple channel configurations...and mhz speeds

I do know however that I want 16 GB of RAM, might as well overbuild it a bit.

Long story short, 16 gigs of RAM in the best setup for performance at the cheapest cost, but not too cheap..


my current setup...

gigabyte mobo

http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2958#ov

Intel i7 bloomfield 920
kingston hyper x RAM 1333 mhz 1.65v 2 x 2 GB khx1333c7d3k2/4gx
Western digital velociraptor Hard disk ( probably upgrade to SSD soon)
Corsair TX-650 PSU

thanks

With that motherboard your CPU will happily support 16GB+ even at faster speeds than 1333Mhz. You may not want to go through the trial-and-error-tweaking that may be required to get 2000MHz+ working.

I used 24GB (3x8) 1866MHz CL10 HyperX clocked to 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 @ 1.60v. Had the same CPU (4GHz) & board as you.

16GB (2x8) is a no-brainer for you.

I have 16GB of G.Skill 1600MHz (4x4GB) in my UD5 atm running in triple channel mode. RAM was just the 1.5v stuff that I was using in my Sandybridge system. Dual channel 2x8 would be fine though.

If you're not too fussed about eeking the last bit of performance out of the RAM (you will probably struggle to run 2666mhz on Bloomfield for example) and are happy to buy RAM that, if necessary, you just underclock a bit, you should be fine.

I'd probably just get whatever reasonable ram and run it at 1600mhz or so.

would this memory work in my MOBO?



I was thinking to do just 8GB for now....

...Then later i could add another single 4GB stick of the same exact RAM (just sold as a single, nearly same part no.).........to get 12GB in triple channel configuration.

** No competitor talk/linking **

It seems like if choose 2 x 8GB, i am limiting my options?.... what happens later if i want more? I would have to buy another 8GB stick, reaching my 24GB system max with only populating 3 slots?

Which x58 mobo you got? I'm having the same issue, I've got a gigabyte x58a-ud3r v2.0, but not sure if they take 8gb modules, the max on the boards compatibility list is 4gb.

Did you have any luck with 8gb modules? Or just max out to 24gb using 6x4gb?