RAM dilemma

[esoteric]

RAM dilemma, 12Gb Tri vs 16Gb Dual

Me and a mate were looking at that sexy Kingston 24Gb RAM package, then he mentioned that we might get capped because we have W7 Home Premium, and we are in fact capped at 16Gb.

So we have 2 options without paying for Windows 7 again.

12Gb in Tri
16Gb in Dual

I know 24Gb is excessive in the first place, but it would last a life time

Something semi-related, I have a Gigabyte x58-UD3R rev2 mobo, the manual says I can run 4 RAM modules in Tri, which goes against the logic of Tri being 3 modules. So I am confused about that, if anyone can shed some light, much appreciated.

 

[Barry1987]

Your OS being Windows 7 Home Premium is irrelevant I believe. It's if you have 64bit or 32bit. If you have 32bit, there is no point going over 4GB. 64bit will support 24GB.

There is definitely an explanation for the Tri-Channel 4 slot thing, I can't quite remember what it is but it is feasible.

You won't notice too much of a different between dual and tri tbh. 12GB and 16GB are almost inseparable. It's only worth getting tri or quad instead of dual if your CPU supports the feature. My i7 3820 does with my quad chanel 8 DIMM motherboard.

 

[wazza300]

on that mb id only go as high as 12gb,it will limit your oc due to the amount of ram,if your at stock youll be ok

 

[esoteric]

Your OS being Windows 7 Home Premium is irrelevant I believe. It's if you have 64bit or 32bit. If you have 32bit, there is no point going over 4GB. 64bit will support 24GB.

There is definitely an explanation for the Tri-Channel 4 slot thing, I can't quite remember what it is but it is feasible.

You won't notice too much of a different between dual and tri tbh. 12GB and 16GB are almost inseparable. It's only worth getting tri or quad instead of dual if your CPU supports the feature. My i7 3820 does with my quad chanel 8 DIMM motherboard.

According to Microsoft Home Premium only supports 16Gb, while Professional and above support 192Gb, and the 32bit versions only take 4Gb.

I have no idea if my CPU supports it.. my mobo does so my current 6Gb is set in Tri, I have an i7 930.

 

[Barry1987]

According to Microsoft Home Premium only supports 16Gb, while Professional and above support 192Gb, and the 32bit versions only take 4Gb.

I have no idea if my CPU supports it.. my mobo does so my current 6Gb is set in Tri, I have an i7 930.

I see. You learn something every day.

Your processor supports Tri channel but not Quad, I just checked. So you should be fine on that front.

i7 930 - Scroll down slightly to the Memory Specifications (one below Essentials) and it will say 3 channels.

 

[esoteric]

That is not the right CPU, it's this one

http://ark.intel.com/products/41447...ocessor-(8M-Cache-2_80-GHz-4_80-GTs-Intel-QPI)

Thanks for helping though, Barry

Will wait for more replies until I decide on 12 Tri or 16 Dual.

Also, the Intel link says "DDR3-800/1066" I have 16000+ Corsair installed, so that makes me think it's wasted, but CPU-Z shows my RAM is running at 539.7MHz. x3 that's 1617MHz. So the motherboard can use 16000 but the CPU doesn't? , so is it worth buying 16000+?

The deeper I go into this the more I learn and end up confused again

 

[wazza300]

ram speed can be set to 1600mhz in the bios or to whatever the ram is rated at,but with more than 6gb and 1600mhz its harder to get it stable the amount of imc(qpi/vtt voltage) needed will be high or just might not be worth it

 

[OLDPHART]

Hi, yes your mobo will run 4 sticks of ram in tri channel you just have to put them in the right slots check your manual. I have the x58 ud5 mobo which can also run 4 sticks in tri channel.

 

[esoteric]

Hi, yes your mobo will run 4 sticks of ram in tri channel you just have to put them in the right slots check your manual. I have the x58 ud5 mobo which can also run 4 sticks in tri channel.

I know it can run 4 in Tri, but my friend seems to think 1 stick will be redundant and not do anything since it's Tri mode and Tri is there for 3 sticks.