Q: Triple channel memory

Greebo · 22 Jun 2015 at 08:24

I have a X58 board and i7-950 processor and running 3 x 2gb 1600Mhz ddr3 ram and would like to increase this to 12Gb total.

Buying another 6Gb isnt the best option as filling all the slots on some motherboards etc can cause issues.

But triple channel sets are now uncommon and expensive.

So can i buy 2 lots of dual channel 4gb ddr3 ram and just use three sticks (so one as a spare) as it seems to be cheaper than buying 3 x 4gb triple channel ram from anywhere?

setter · 22 Jun 2015 at 09:25

Yup, will work grand.

Steeps · 22 Jun 2015 at 11:03

I bought a 24gb triple channel kit (corsair) and it came with 3 sets of closely numbered pairs. Motherboard has been going for 6 years and all 6 slots in use for nearly 3 years with matched pairs no issues.

pandem0nium · 26 Jun 2015 at 11:53

You could buy any three matching single sticks as well.

eg:

YOUR BASKET
3 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED34GM1600C1101) £25.99 (£77.97)
Total : £81.89 (includes shipping : £3.26 Ex.VAT).

There's no such thing as triple channel ram, the channel configuration is a function of the motherboard.