More dual channel mem, or go for quad channel ?

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About to go for a major upgrade of everyhing, and was given this advice :


Am happy to spend a bit more, am sticking with the CPU, but going for a slightly different mainboard (Gigabyte Z77X-D3H), a different cooler (Xigmatek Aegir SD) and have been looking at getting different/faster memory.

I want a minimum of 16GB, and am looking at around the £ 60,
I see several different brands of the dual channel strips but also seen a few good deals for 16GB of quad channel, like this "Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Quad Channel Kit" for £ 60, this week.

Is it worth going for quad channel over dual channel if all i'm doing really is gaming (high end games) and surfing. No photo/video editing or anything.

And is there a big difference between the PC3-12800 and the PC3-14400+ quad channel memory ?

Any advice on what memory to go for with a i5-3570K and a Gigabyte Z77X-D3H is greatly appreciated :)
 
Memory isn't dual or quad channel, motherboards are. Buying four single sticks of memory is exactly the same as buying two dual channel kits, or a single quad channel kit.

A Z77 board will only run dual channel. If you populate it with four sticks it'll just do dual channel twice.

If you want quad channel you'll need an X79 system.

Basically don't worry about memory channels, just populate the board you want with the amount of memory you want using as few sticks as you can without spending an excessive amount.
 
Is it worth going for quad channel over dual channel if all i'm doing really is gaming (high end games) and surfing. No photo/video editing or anything.

8gbs is fine for the above. The memory stulid has selected is good enough for gaming. If you have extra money to spend use it for a better graphics card or a SSD to boot off of, these are things where you will notice a much bigger difference.
 
Cheers for that folks! I've learned so much on here in the fast few weeks, all very appreciated.

Seeing that you have the same mainboard and CPU i want i'll probaby go for that teamelite memory as i've read your other topic about it.

Might also go for that same graphic card, you happy with it ?
 
Just noticed the team elite ones (16GB) are on sale and am contemplating buying 2x 16 GB to make 32GB.

Will there be a noticable difference in general pc use and gaming between 16 and 32, or again is that only worth it when editing video etc. ?
 
Just noticed the team elite ones (16GB) are on sale and am contemplating buying 2x 16 GB to make 32GB.

Will there be a noticable difference in general pc use and gaming between 16 and 32, or again is that only worth it when editing video etc. ?

Unless you have something that can use that amount of memory, its a bad idea.

More memory = more work for the intergrated memory controller in the CPU which could mean lower memory speeds.

16gbs is plenty for gaming and most other things.
 
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