16 Gb Vengeance - Have I got it in the right slots?

[Draeger]

Have picked up a set of 16Gb Corsair Vengeance - 4x 4Gb Sticks of CMZ16GX3M4A1600-C9, this stuff:-

http://www.corsair.com/ru-ru/vengeance-16gb-dual-channel-ddr3-memory-kit-cmz16gx3m4a1600c9

It's sat in an Asus P6X58-D-E board which of course, was intended to run in triple channel mode. The 16Gb has replaced a 6Gb XMS3 set ( 3 x 2Gb Sticks). Primarily wanted to increase memory amount as I do a lot of image manipulation with Adobe CS6 - PS and Fireworks mainly and when working with multiple images open in both programs sometimes things were getting a bit slow. Extra boost 16Gb would give for other tasks including a bit of gaming now and again were simply a bonus.

I initially thought about just fitting 3 x of the Vengeance 4 Gb sticks to give 12Gb but having done some digging around for info it appears the X58 boards can run in triple channel mode with 4 slots populated. It's called 'Flex Mode' and as long as you fit the 4 sticks in the correct slots you get triple channel plus the 4th stick runs in single channel. I assume that having a 16Gb kit this would be the best option to maximise performance. I found a few diagrams and I'd like if possible, someone in the know to confirm I've got these sticks in the correct slots. I've read that some folk suggest more memory sticks increase the stress you put the memory controller under but given that 16Gb these days isn't a massive 'ask' I would think the CPU would cope fine, it's only 4Gb more than 12Gb after all.

I've got them in the following slots - Triple Channel running in the blue slots, single channel running in the top A2 slot:-



I'm pretty sure that's what the following diagram states is correct?



Have I got that right?

The system posts fine, detects all 4 sticks as the full 16Gb and shows the following in CPU-Z:-



That look ok to you memory experts?

The only issue I've got now is that the Vengeance heat spreaders on the sticks in slots A1 and A2 are fouling the fan on the Coolermaster Hyper 612S. I've slipped the fan upwards on its mounting bracket about 1.5cm and it now clears the spreaders but because of this the side panel on my Zalman Plus 3 wont fit back on as the fan protrudes slightly too much to allow it. Not sure what to do now, and yeah - maybe I should have went for LP memory modules but I didn't even give it a thought until after I had pushed the button and bought these ones. Doh!!!

 

[Draeger]

Cool, cheers for the confirmation m8.

The Hyper 612S already has a fan on the other side as I've got both brackets fitted with 2x 120mm fans running in a push/pull setup. I could possibly try removing the one obstructing the RAM (the push one) and just leave the other one (the pull one) on and see what difference if any it makes to my temps. At the moment I'm running the system with the side of the case left off and open which isn't a hassle as its sat out of sight under my desk but I'd rather it was refitted as I imagine it will cut down on dust entry as well as make the passage of air smoother through the entire system at the end of the day?

 

[Draeger]

I'll see how it goes with a single fan fitted. It's either that or I look at whipping off the heat spreaders on the two offending sticks but that's not ideal really. Should have bought low profile sticks but these came up at a good price and I couldn't refuse 'em.

 

[Draeger]

You could just try running all 4 in the furthest sockets as dual channel.

If you want to test what the performance is like with dual or triple+single then setup a ramdisk to use all the memory and then use hd tune to run a long error scan on the ram drive. The speed map will then give you an idea of how the ram will perform. The scan only takes a few seconds due to how fast the ram is

I may just try that purely out of interest, ta.

One other thing to add, you could get one more single 8gb stick (low profile) and then set it up like (cpu) - 8 4 4 4 4 (if that makes sense) for full triple channel speed across all the memory.

Would I not require 2x further sticks of 4Gb RAM each so that all six slots were populated to run in triple channel speed across all the slots? Surely if there were 5 slots filled it would only still run in triple channel mode for the three blue slots populated?

 

[Draeger]

Removed the heatspreaders from the 2 x sticks closest to the HSF. Took literally 5 minutes to unclip the ends, apply a tiny amount of heat from a hair drier to soften up the thermal tape and then carefully prise them off. Refitted the sticks and the fan on the Hyper 612S fits perfectly where it should do and I can now get the side of my case back on. I've kept the heat spreaders for if and when I come to sell the RAM.

Sorted.