Is Triple Channel the way forward?

Arterion

Arterion

Arterion

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Reading, UK
Hi all,

My current rig (in my signature) has been serving me well for nigh on four years now, but I'm feeling like I want to get on this i3/i5/i7 bandwagon.

Obviously, depending on which chip/mobo I get, I'm going to end up with either Dual or Triple channel RAM. Is it the case that dual channel is on its way out and will have limited support in the future? My current board has seen me through 2 different CPUs and still has some headroom for upgrade on this socket- I want similar futureproofing from a new board. The i5 route seems fairly cost effective (i7's are still blippin' expensive), but I don't want to be left with a board which is soon to be obsolete.

Thoughts?
 
Both current boards will become obsolete when the new sandybridge cpus are released.

socket 1156 (i3/i5/i7) will be replaced with 1155 while socket 1366 will be replaced by socket 1355 (i7/i9).

This transition will take place sometime in Q2/Q3 2011 by the looks of it.

On the bright side the current cpus are quite very capable and should last another 2-3 years hopefully (i7s atleast).
 
Last edited:
eXalin said:
tri channel is more future proof than dual
Click to expand...

tri channel still isnt needed by anything though it only shows its superiority in benchmarks we might not need the bandwidth before quad channel pops up.

people always assume because its got higher specs its needed.

i bet with the best gfc card you can get theres still bugger all difference between 8x and 16x pci lanes
 
Ask yourself this question. Does my system do all the things I want my PC system to do? Does my current system play the games at the level of detail I want the games to play at?

If you are honest with yourself then you find that most of the time we really do not need to upgrade our systems. I upgrade far to often and the only one who is happy is the bank manager.

Based on your systems as shown in your sig - the most significant upgrade would be a more current graphics card. Really if you can wait, and I never seem to be able to do that - wait for the Sandybridge range of platforms. Then make the change. i7 has had three years of being the top set up, that is really long and quite unusual. So skip this iteration and go for the next one.

If you can wait. hehe
 
also remember that theres generally no difference between the individual ram sticks in dual and tri channel.

its just dual comes with 2 and tri comes with 3.

if you got a set of duals, then u can buy a matching single (if theres any available) and make it upto tri channel

advantages of tri channel is that u know all 3 are going to be matched, and more convenient.

but its still possible to buy 3 seperate sticks and run them in tri channel
 
Like raralis said, 1156 and 1366 will both be replaced at some point next year, so I wouldn't worry about trying to future proof your memory. An i5 quad/i7 build should last you a good couple of years. By the time you upgrade it, whatever memory you went for at the time will be obsolete.

You're not going to see a real world difference between dual and tri channel, so I wouldn't let that put you off at all. There's a possible argument for 6gb rather than 4gb, but again that'll only make a difference in a handful of situations at the moment.
 
dual channel will still work on 1366 motherboard

to be honest just upgrade the graphics card and soldier on with your set up till standy bridge.

i got an c2d e6750, still does everything and play the latest games.
 
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