4GB to 8GB upgrade

e36Adz · 11 Jun 2011 at 20:03

It's been about 18 months since I upgraded my PC (spec in sig) and I wasn't even thinking about doing so but I have just seen this:

G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Brand new sealed for £50 delivered.

Is it worth upgrading from 4GB to 8GB simply because DDR3 prices seem to be so low atm?

Would the above ram be ok in terms of keeping my CPU overclock, its running at 4.0Ghz?

Any reason why I shouldn't???

simbady · 11 Jun 2011 at 20:30

I believe the overclock will be the same as you are still only using 2 slots on the motherboard. If you need 8GB of RAM really depends on what you do but at that price minus the price of what you could sell your 4GB for. I'd go for it.

Naan_H · 11 Jun 2011 at 20:58

Adz i have had 8GB in my aging but still very competent system, and it still doesnt miss a beat. Do it, its not exactly expensive and you can sell your current 4GB to get some of the cost back.

Nightglow · 11 Jun 2011 at 21:19

+1

With DDR3 being cheap, & many peeps using W7 64bit, I consider 8gb (2x4gb) as the minimum amount in a pc now.

I run W7 64 bit, & 8gb memory in my each of three pc's.

e36Adz · 11 Jun 2011 at 21:32

Sorted. Should be here Mon/Tue

Hoping to get around £30 back for my 4GB.

HangTime · 11 Jun 2011 at 22:39

^^I'd disagree with that, for triple channel users 6GB is a reasonable amount IMO.

I've recently upgraded to 12GB PC12800 (got a good deal on some Corsair Vengeance 8GB) as I can't be bothered selling the old memory, one thing I'm having trouble with though is finding some decent RAMdisk software.

e36Adz · 14 Jun 2011 at 12:48

Ok guys, I received this today, gonna see if I can get my 4.0Ghz overclock.

I set it to 3.6Ghz to be safe and fitted the ram and didn't really touch any ram settings, and it seems to be fine.

On the G.Skill ram it said 1.5v, but what is a safe voltage to use? The Geil Ultra which I removed said 1.65v.

Any other settings I should be adjusting? Even though I managed to set my system up at 4.0Ghz I am a novice at this kinda stuff, and have no idea what half the settings even mean. :|

e36Adz · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:30

Well I just thought I'd try it so bumped it straight up to 4.0Ghz and set the ram voltage to 1.7v as it was for the Geil, and it seems to be fine. Ran a couple of quick benchmarks and everything seems to be in order.

Could someone just confirm if 1.7v is safe for this ram?

zoomee · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:36

errr - why run the ram at higher voltage than what it needs?

I'm assuming you've got it set to 1600Mhz in which case drop it back down to 1.5v

- no point giving it more juice than it needs.

e36Adz · 14 Jun 2011 at 17:57

zoomee said:
errr - why run the ram at higher voltage than what it needs?

I'm assuming you've got it set to 1600Mhz in which case drop it back down to 1.5v - no point giving it more juice than it needs.

I have absolutely no idea why I'd set it to higher then it needs lol, quite odd when I think about it now

Restarting PC and setting it down a notch...

BTW I don't recall setting anything at 1600Mhz, where should I be looking for ram settings? Actually I'll post a screenshot in 2 mins...

e36Adz · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:10

Here you go:

The only thing I changed on there was BCLK Frequency to 191 which clocks the CPU at 4.0Ghz (191 x21). DRAM Frequency changes itself as I adjust BCLK Freq. Also, I have lowered the DRAM Voltage to 1.6 for now, just wanted to see if everything starts up ok and it has...

Do the settings look right? Am I even on the correct bios page as I don't see anything like cas settings which I know is related to the ram?

mraerosmith1981 · 14 Jun 2011 at 18:36

8gb is very useful if you do any vm work

e36Adz · 14 Jun 2011 at 21:17

These are the settings in cpu-z, does everything seem ok?

I only just changed the ram settings to 9-9-9 after finding them in 'DRAM timing Control' since that is what the ram is rated at.