16gb, better to have 4x4gb or 2x8gb?

Admiral Huddy said:
How is that so? Can you qualify that statement

It's an interesting question.

Power consumtion aside, I would say it makes no difference as the resources alloted to the bus and the IMC are already reserved but not sure.
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I remember reading a post by 8pack on the overclocking boards about this, I've read it in numerous other places also.
 
Multiple channel memory has nothing to do with the issue. Multiple channels, when activated, effectivly increase the bandwith. So having 4x4GB stick in dual channel or 2x8GB in dual channel have the same bandwidth..
 
The only disadvantage to 2x8gb for me is that you will have 2 empty slots and feel the need to get another 2x8gb ;)
 
Depends what motherboard chipset you have. If it supports dual channel or quad. If dual then i would always go 2x8gb, if quad then 4x4gb. I run 4x4gb samsung green's.

Can't think of a gain of 4 dimms in a dual channel system.
 
No real difference between having 2 slots used or 4 on dual channel. Test below using 2 x 8GB DIMMS and 4 x 8GB DIMMS on a P67 board.

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In my opinion, 2 sticks less voltage, big whoop.

4 sticks usually costs much less, but 2 sticks allows you to upgrade in future, should you EVER need more than 16GB!

Having all slots occupied does look better if you are bothered about that.

I would get whichever is most cost effective. The board is obviously designed to cope with having all slots occupied.
 
2x8 GB on a dual channel board will put less stress on the IMC. 4x4GB is actually on a dual channel board would be 2 'dual' channels running simultaneously (hence why memory module slots are labelled A + B) 'A' would be one dual channel, 'B' would be another so populating both channels would result in more rather than one quad channel as on x79.
 
there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that fewer sticks is better. in practical terms you get to upgrade should you ever want to. there's also this thing where overclocking the cpu is supposedly harder with more sticks. it's almost certainly true with cpus older than nehalem, not sure if it remains the case?
 
i was wondering the same as i have 2x4gb sticks atm would be nice to have future upgrade room but would i ever need 32gb ram for gaming and general use ?
 
if you are not over clocking the only consideration is do you want to save a few quid now or have some empty slots to upgrade in the future

(assuming you dont have a cheap ass board that will not run properly with all the slots filled running at stock speeds)
 
Although they do seem to be improving I've noticed that the timings on the 8GB modules do generally seem to be looser than the 4Gb ones, speed for speed.
 
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