capacity, speed, latency ram

tbgjlb

tbgjlb

tbgjlb

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31 Dec 2020
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hello all
At the moment I have a ASROCK Z370 PRO4 motherboard with 8gb ram (2x4gb) 3000mhz running at 2666mhz cl 15.17.17.35. I'm thinking an upgrade is due but I'm not sure what to get. I don't want to spend more than £80 ish, but get what. I believe if I'm reading things correctly anything over 2666 requires an OC which I've never done before and this may affect the ram I buy.

Assuming the same ( similar ) speed do I go 32gb slower cl or 16gb faster cl

thanks for any help
tbg
 
tbgjlb said:
if I'm reading things correctly anything over 2666 requires an OC which I've never done before and this may affect the ram I buy.
Click to expand...

Correct, but since you have Z370, you can easily overclock the memory.

tbgjlb said:
Assuming the same ( similar ) speed do I go 32gb slower cl or 16gb faster cl
Click to expand...

I would definitely rather have 32GB and if you intend to keep the RAM for a future upgrade (e.g. to 13th gen), then buy a higher speed than 2666 (3200 or 3600) and just allow the board to run it slower.

Unless you're not keeping the PC for long, I'd try to avoid buying 8GB sticks nowadays, since it is easy to get high density (16Gbit) with only 4 chips *.

Alternatively, the cheapest option would be buying an old 8GB stick of your existing memory and stick it in the other memory channel (you'd need both 2x4 in their own channel, which means moving one of them over).

If you're not sure what the memory will be, I'd update the BIOS to the latest to ensure maximum compatibility **, since the release bios on 8th/9th gen boards may not support single rank 16GB sticks. An updated BIOS will usually increase the memory capacity to 128GB *** (from 64GB) and support dual rank 32GB sticks.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7CO9v9rpOk

** https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/blog/pc-performance/the-benefits-of-16gbit-ddr4-dram
*** https://www.anandtech.com/show/1347...gb-of-ddr4-on-core-9th-gen-desktop-processors
 
Last edited:
thanks for the reply. I was heading towards the bigger capacity at 3200 or 3600 and figure out how oc the M\B. Given time I'll look at the links .
 
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