MSI X99s SLI Plus - Memory upgrade! Advice appreciated!

BernieUK · 29 Oct 2020 at 22:31

Good evening

I have a 6 year old desktop purchased from Overclockers. Still going strong and I have no plans to replace it just yet. However I would like to increase the memory from 16gb to 32gb. There are 4X 4gb memory modules on the motherboard at present.

I have to admit to being totally out of touch with memory and hardware in general. On the MSI X99s SLI Plus mother there is a total of 8 slots. Do I purchase 2x 16gb, 4x 8gb or another 4x 4gb? The installed 4gb modules are Crucial crucial CT4G4DFS8213.8FA1 - 4GB DDR4 1.2V SR X3 UDI.

If anyone could please offer any advice it would be much appreciated.

Peace all and stay safe!

EsxPaul · 29 Oct 2020 at 22:54

BernieUK said:
Good evening

I have a 6 year old desktop purchased from Overclockers. Still going strong and I have no plans to replace it just yet. However I would like to increase the memory from 16gb to 32gb. There are 4X 4gb memory modules on the motherboard at present.

I have to admit to being totally out of touch with memory and hardware in general. On the MSI X99s SLI Plus mother there is a total of 8 slots. Do I purchase 2x 16gb, 4x 8gb or another 4x 4gb? The installed 4gb modules are Crucial crucial CT4G4DFS8213.8FA1 - 4GB DDR4 1.2V SR X3 UDI.

If anyone could please offer any advice it would be much appreciated.

Peace all and stay safe!

I'm using a very similar board to yourself (MSI X99A Krait) and would say your best bet is to go for 4x 8gb so that you can take advantage of the quad channels.

If money is a consideration you could also look for another identical set of 4x 4gb as long as they are the same model number as the ones you already own.

mickyflinn · 29 Oct 2020 at 22:54

Ideally you want another 4 x 4gb to run in quad channel, but you could get 2x8gb it should run in dual channel mode

I checked the manual page 30 to 32 you should also to concur.

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/x99s-sli-plus.html#down-bios

mickyflinn · 29 Oct 2020 at 23:01

EsxPaul said:
I'm using a very similar board to yourself (MSI X99A Krait) and would say your best bet is to go for 4x 8gb so that you can take advantage of the quad channels.

Not really

Another 4 x 4gb will also run in quad chanell mode with the original 4 x 4gb he has.

EsxPaul · 30 Oct 2020 at 08:24

mickyflinn said:
Not really

Another 4 x 4gb will also run in quad chanell mode with the original 4 x 4gb he has.

You're right. I should have worded my answer better. Either of the options I suggested would allow you to upgrade to 32gb whilst retaining quad channel mode.

Chaos666 · 31 Oct 2020 at 11:50

believe me .. you want to keep quad channel memory.. dual channel will give you much less performance on x99..
it will make your cpu run cooler though..
the only issue is that you may run into some compatibility issues if you miss match your ram...
i would go with another 4x4gb if you want to keep it cheap..
if you are planning to upgrade and reuse the ram go with 4x8gb