Confused on ram slots...

[zightbaoe]

I have an msi g45 z87 motherboard. It has 4 ram slots. It sais it has dual channel ram. Can I add ram to all 4 slots and will it effect performance? Thanks in advanced

 

[scoobydenon]

You can add Ram to all 4 slots. A total of 32GB 4X8, or 4X4 for 16GB. If you plan on just using 2 slots check the manual for dual channel, it's usually slots 1&3 and 2&4. Remember to press firmly and hear them click into place.

 

[bmanv13]

Yes you can put RAM into all four slots provided that you only have two sets of two sticks of RAM. You will notice that there are two different colors on the RAM slots. What you do is put one set of RAM sticks on one color and another set on the other color so that way they are paired with each other. It will effect your performance in a POSITIVE way. What dual channel basically means is that your motherboard has the capability of using two RAM sticks at once for a single task to increase performance.

EDIT: Your motherboard won't have different colors for the dual channel RAM slots so you will have to refer to the motherboard's manual to see which slots are paired. Ex. Slots 1&3, Slots 2&4.

 

[zightbaoe]

I already have 2 4gb modules in. If I were to want to get a single 8 gb could I use it with one of my 4gb sticks for dual channel and the use my remaining stick for a different slot. Then could I dedicate 4gb of ram to my minecraft server and use the rest to help me render my videos and record. Also what would you reccomend for my upgrade that I get for overall system performance. Some more ram, an ssd, or a cpu cooler. (Have a gtx 760 i5 4670k 8gb ram 1tb caviar blue)

 

[bmanv13]

I already have 2 4gb modules in. If I were to want to get a single 8 gb could I use it with one of my 4gb sticks for dual channel and the use my remaining stick for a different slot. Then could I dedicate 4gb of ram to my minecraft server and use the rest to help me render my videos and record. Also what would you reccomend for my upgrade that I get for overall system performance. Some more ram, an ssd, or a cpu cooler. (Have a gtx 760 i5 4670k 8gb ram 1tb caviar blue)

You're thinking of each slot being it's own thing such as a hard drive would behave. Let's say you have 4 2GB modules and you plug them in; your computer will recognize that you have 8GB of RAM installed. It won't know how many modules you have installed, just the TOTAL amount of RAM installed.

EDIT: BIOS may know how many modules, but not likely the OS will. But my point stands, your RAM will get added up.

So keep your 2 modules of 4GB RAM where they are (make sure they are in the right slots for dual channel). And yes, you can stick that 1 module 8GB of RAM into an empty slot, most preferably the one closest to the CPU.

May I suggest you buy another module of 8GB RAM so you can dual channel your 8GB of RAM? Or if that's too much, just buy 2 modules of 4GB RAM instead of using a single module of 8GB? There will be a performance increase having two modules vs one.

For the amount of money you will have to drop for any improvements isn't really worth it in your case. You have amazing parts from what I see you have listed. You won't benefit much from an SSD until your PC starts booting more slowly over time, 8GB of RAM is good enough for anything, and 1TB is a lot of storage; so your build is awesome

What CPU cooler do you have installed right now?

 

[Tradesman1]

If adding an 8GB stick put it in slot 1 and then the 2 4gb sticks in slots 3-4 so you have 8GB total in each channel - if the mobo supports flex mode then all 16 will run dual channel

 

[zightbaoe]

I already have 2 4gb modules in. If I were to want to get a single 8 gb could I use it with one of my 4gb sticks for dual channel and the use my remaining stick for a different slot. Then could I dedicate 4gb of ram to my minecraft server and use the rest to help me render my videos and record. Also what would you reccomend for my upgrade that I get for overall system performance. Some more ram, an ssd, or a cpu cooler. (Have a gtx 760 i5 4670k 8gb ram 1tb caviar blue)

You're thinking of each slot being it's own thing such as a hard drive would behave. Let's say you have 4 2GB modules and you plug them in; your computer will recognize that you have 8GB of RAM installed. It won't know how many modules you have installed, just the TOTAL amount of RAM installed.

EDIT: BIOS may know how many modules, but not likely the OS will. But my point stands, your RAM will get added up.

So keep your 2 modules of 4GB RAM where they are (make sure they are in the right slots for dual channel). And yes, you can stick that 1 module 8GB of RAM into an empty slot, most preferably the one closest to the CPU.

May I suggest you buy another module of 8GB RAM so you can dual channel your 8GB of RAM? Or if that's too much, just buy 2 modules of 4GB RAM instead of using a single module of 8GB? There will be a performance increase having two modules vs one.

For the amount of money you will have to drop for any improvements isn't really worth it in your case. You have amazing parts from what I see you have listed. You won't benefit much from an SSD until your PC starts booting more slowly over time, 8GB of RAM is good enough for anything, and 1TB is a lot of storage; so your build is awesome

What CPU cooler do you have installed right now?

stock

 

[zightbaoe]

If adding an 8GB stick put it in slot 1 and then the 2 4gb sticks in slots 3-4 so you have 8GB total in each channel - if the mobo supports flex mode then all 16 will run dual channel

Do you know if the msi g45 z87 will have flex mode

 

[Tradesman1]

I believe it does, yes, I don't build with MSI (and I don't mix DRAM, but believe we've had a couple folks that have here at Tom's and manged to get them working this way

 

[bmanv13]

I already have 2 4gb modules in. If I were to want to get a single 8 gb could I use it with one of my 4gb sticks for dual channel and the use my remaining stick for a different slot. Then could I dedicate 4gb of ram to my minecraft server and use the rest to help me render my videos and record. Also what would you reccomend for my upgrade that I get for overall system performance. Some more ram, an ssd, or a cpu cooler. (Have a gtx 760 i5 4670k 8gb ram 1tb caviar blue)

You're thinking of each slot being it's own thing such as a hard drive would behave. Let's say you have 4 2GB modules and you plug them in; your computer will recognize that you have 8GB of RAM installed. It won't know how many modules you have installed, just the TOTAL amount of RAM installed.

EDIT: BIOS may know how many modules, but not likely the OS will. But my point stands, your RAM will get added up.

So keep your 2 modules of 4GB RAM where they are (make sure they are in the right slots for dual channel). And yes, you can stick that 1 module 8GB of RAM into an empty slot, most preferably the one closest to the CPU.

May I suggest you buy another module of 8GB RAM so you can dual channel your 8GB of RAM? Or if that's too much, just buy 2 modules of 4GB RAM instead of using a single module of 8GB? There will be a performance increase having two modules vs one.

For the amount of money you will have to drop for any improvements isn't really worth it in your case. You have amazing parts from what I see you have listed. You won't benefit much from an SSD until your PC starts booting more slowly over time, 8GB of RAM is good enough for anything, and 1TB is a lot of storage; so your build is awesome

What CPU cooler do you have installed right now?

stock

Buy an after market CPU cooler such as the Hyper 212 Evo and overclock your CPU since it is unlocked. That will be your performance boost overall.