Question Just a little lost in the magical world of RAM upgrades ?

[Bawzlife]

Hello Tom's hardware

I have now, after a few years decided to upgrade the ram on my pc. This is mainly due to the newer games I am interested in require minimum 16gb of ram.
With my current setup I have 16 gb of ram. It will highly likely in the future be an issue for me playing my enjoyable games etc with the current amount while also multitasking on my second monitor.
I have not tweaked any timings as it has not been necessary. Only the XMP in bios has been enabled. Below mentioned is my full system.

Corsair vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 (PC4-24000) CL15, XMP 2.0.
Intel i7-8700k - Not overclocked.
Corsair Hydro series H100I v2 CPU Cooler.
Asus Rog Strix z370-e wifi gaming motherboard.
Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SSD 550/520 MB/S read/write
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 750W PSU
Phanteks Eclipse p400s glass silent

The case has been fully upgraded with noctua fans all around.

The two following Ram are what I have been looking into. I understand that Dual channel is only supported by my CPU and the motherboard up to 4000 mhz.
Ive read that timing is considered better than MHz, however I also understand newer systems require higher MHz amount. And perhaps one day I would build and brand new pc, so it would be nice to be able to reuse one of the two memory modules here.

G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-15-15-35)
And
G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3200 C14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-14-14-34)

Looking forward to your answers, and thank you for your time! It is highly appreciated!

 

[Bob.B]

Hello Tom's hardware

I have now, after a few years decided to upgrade the ram on my pc. This is mainly due to the newer games I am interested in require minimum 16gb of ram.
With my current setup I have 16 gb of ram. It will highly likely in the future be an issue for me playing my enjoyable games etc with the current amount while also multitasking on my second monitor.
I have not tweaked any timings as it has not been necessary. Only the XMP in bios has been enabled. Below mentioned is my full system.

Corsair vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 (PC4-24000) CL15, XMP 2.0.
Intel i7-8700k - Not overclocked.
Corsair Hydro series H100I v2 CPU Cooler.
Asus Rog Strix z370-e wifi gaming motherboard.
Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SSD 550/520 MB/S read/write
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 750W PSU
Phanteks Eclipse p400s glass silent

The case has been fully upgraded with noctua fans all around.

The two following Ram are what I have been looking into. I understand that Dual channel is only supported by my CPU and the motherboard up to 4000 mhz.
Ive read that timing is considered better than MHz, however I also understand newer systems require higher MHz amount. And perhaps one day I would build and brand new pc, so it would be nice to be able to reuse one of the two memory modules here.

G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-15-15-35)
And
G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3200 C14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-14-14-34)

Looking forward to your answers, and thank you for your time! It is highly appreciated!

I doubt you will see much of a diff between those sticks.
If you want the bling go with the flashing lights.

New build?
Unless your planning on a new build in the next year ddr4 will be old stuff.
Ddr5 is in the pipe

 

[Nine Layer Nige]

I think you will see marginal difference if any difference at all, and I dont think spending cash on DDR4 considering you already have it is good purchase especially as DDR5 will be the dominant memory over the next year or 2.
Yes its a murky world, is RAM, but your system is good enough for now for decent gaming except you did not mention what GPU you have.
You could run UserBenchMark and post a link to the results here.

 

[DRagor]

Welcome to the forum Bawzlife
I'm not sure what your question is? Trying to mix your current RAM with one of those Tridents? That's not advised. Replacing it with Tridents (with 2x16 or 4x8)? That's ok, but only if you really need 32 Gb right now or very soon.
Also as guys above already mentioned current newest generation of motherboards is the last one that will use DDR4, so buying RAM for future use makes no sense atm.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Hello Tom's hardware

I have now, after a few years decided to upgrade the ram on my pc. This is mainly due to the newer games I am interested in require minimum 16gb of ram.
With my current setup I have 16 gb of ram. It will highly likely in the future be an issue for me playing my enjoyable games etc with the current amount while also multitasking on my second monitor.
I have not tweaked any timings as it has not been necessary. Only the XMP in bios has been enabled. Below mentioned is my full system.

Corsair vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 (PC4-24000) CL15, XMP 2.0.
Intel i7-8700k - Not overclocked.
Corsair Hydro series H100I v2 CPU Cooler.
Asus Rog Strix z370-e wifi gaming motherboard.
Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SSD 550/520 MB/S read/write
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 750W PSU
Phanteks Eclipse p400s glass silent

The case has been fully upgraded with noctua fans all around.

The two following Ram are what I have been looking into. I understand that Dual channel is only supported by my CPU and the motherboard up to 4000 mhz.
Ive read that timing is considered better than MHz, however I also understand newer systems require higher MHz amount. And perhaps one day I would build and brand new pc, so it would be nice to be able to reuse one of the two memory modules here.

G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-15-15-35)
And
G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3200 C14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-14-14-34)

Looking forward to your answers, and thank you for your time! It is highly appreciated!

I don't think you will notice much difference between those two kits. To be honest I don't think going from 3000Mhz to 3600Mhz will make any meaningful difference either. I would get another 32GB kit of Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000Mhz and have 48GB instead.

 

[Bazzy 505]

Hello Tom's hardware

I have now, after a few years decided to upgrade the ram on my pc. This is mainly due to the newer games I am interested in require minimum 16gb of ram.
With my current setup I have 16 gb of ram. It will highly likely in the future be an issue for me playing my enjoyable games etc with the current amount while also multitasking on my second monitor.
I have not tweaked any timings as it has not been necessary. Only the XMP in bios has been enabled. Below mentioned is my full system.

Corsair vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 MHz 16GB 2x8GB DDR4 (PC4-24000) CL15, XMP 2.0.
Intel i7-8700k - Not overclocked.
Corsair Hydro series H100I v2 CPU Cooler.
Asus Rog Strix z370-e wifi gaming motherboard.
Samsung 860 EVO m.2 SSD 550/520 MB/S read/write
EVGA Supernova 750 G3, 750W PSU
Phanteks Eclipse p400s glass silent

The case has been fully upgraded with noctua fans all around.

The two following Ram are what I have been looking into. I understand that Dual channel is only supported by my CPU and the motherboard up to 4000 mhz.
Ive read that timing is considered better than MHz, however I also understand newer systems require higher MHz amount. And perhaps one day I would build and brand new pc, so it would be nice to be able to reuse one of the two memory modules here.

G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-15-15-35)
And
G.Skill TridentZ Neo DDR4-3200 C14 DC - 32GB Timing (14-14-14-34)

Looking forward to your answers, and thank you for your time! It is highly appreciated!

8700K only supports DDR4-2666 max, that's the limit of the memory controller (which is a part of the CPU itself). There's absolutely no perfomance benefit in buying anything faster, unless you're overclocking ringbus, which you shouldn't do anyways as perfomance yelds are marginal and come at heavy expense to system stability.

Now this doesn't mean you cannot use higher rated sticks in hopes you'll carry that memory over to new system once you ready to make generational upgrade, but that is likely to end up being a fool's errand as well. DDR4 will be mostly superseeded by DDR5 in about 2 years, which is very likely about the time you'll replace the entire system.

I would recommend going for plain ol DDR4-2666, they're mostly in clearance sales nowdays for a pretty penny. anything with CL16 will serve you just fine.

Consider the money you'd save this way as first step towards saving up for new system you'll eventually buy in a year or two.

 

[Nighthawk117]

8700K only supports DDR4-2666 max, that's the limit of the memory controller (which is a part of the CPU itself). There's absolutely no perfomance benefit in buying anything faster, unless you're overclocking ringbus, which you shouldn't do anyways as perfomance yelds are marginal and come at heavy expense to system stability.

Now this doesn't mean you cannot use higher rated sticks in hopes you'll carry that memory over to new system once you ready to make generational upgrade, but that is likely to end up being a fool's errand as well. DDR4 will be mostly superseeded by DDR5 in about 2 years, which is very likely about the time you'll replace the entire system.

I would recommend going for plain ol DDR4-2666, they're mostly in clearance sales nowdays for a pretty penny. anything with CL16 will serve you just fine.

Consider the money you'd save this way as first step towards saving up for new system you'll eventually buy in a year or two.

He has a Z390, he can just enable XMP and run 3600Mhz. The 8700K is quite capable of doing that regardless of the official support. I do agree though that the benefits of fast memory are often overstated, never found it to make much difference myself.

 

[Bawzlife]

Hello all

Thank you so ever kindly for all your messages, information and provided details. They all helped me clearly clarify what to do and such!
The conclusion will be to await further time and by then build a brand new setup.
I really appreciate your help and time, otherwise it would've costed me dearly!! (the price in Denmark for a set of the cheaper pair is 333 usd)

In case it turn out to be impossible to wait perhaps two years or so, would it be possible to simply buy another set of the current 16gb that I have? So I would let it run Quad, even though it says it only support DC? This solution would be able to carry me through the ram requirements needed and would only cost 80 usd compared to the 330+ usd.

Again thank you so much for your quick and comprehensively answers!

Regarding the GPU I am rocking my GTX 1080TI and loving it still! 🙂

Best Regards

 

[Nighthawk117]

Hello all

Thank you so ever kindly for all your messages, information and provided details. They all helped me clearly clarify what to do and such!
The conclusion will be to await further time and by then build a brand new setup.
I really appreciate your help and time, otherwise it would've costed me dearly!! (the price in Denmark for a set of the cheaper pair is 333 usd)

In case it turn out to be impossible to wait perhaps two years or so, would it be possible to simply buy another set of the current 16gb that I have? So I would let it run Quad, even though it says it only support DC? This solution would be able to carry me through the ram requirements needed and would only cost 80 usd compared to the 330+ usd.

Again thank you so much for your quick and comprehensively answers!

Regarding the GPU I am rocking my GTX 1080TI and loving it still!

Best Regards

It will still run in dual channel with 4 stick's, I've always used 4 sticks of RAM. No you won't get quad channel memory though, only Threadripper and Intel HEDT support quad channel memory. I also have the same memory as you, 4 x Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000Mhz but paired with a i9 10850K.

 

[Nine Layer Nige]

Just keep an eye on DDR5 prices over the year. Right now they are big money as they are new and supply and demand is screwed up. Also, as DDR5 matures you will see faster and faster kits coming out and prices will fall. Hang on and watch the market.
Dont buy DDR4

 

[Bawzlife]

It will still run in dual channel with 4 stick's, I've always used 4 sticks of RAM. No you won't get quad channel memory though, only Threadripper and Intel HEDT support quad channel memory. I also have the same memory as you, 4 x Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000Mhz but paired with a i9 10850K.

Perfect Nighthawk, thank you. I will look into seeing if I can snatch another set cheaply then! 🙂

 

[Bawzlife]

Just keep an eye on DDR5 prices over the year. Right now they are big money as they are new and supply and demand is screwed up. Also, as DDR5 matures you will see faster and faster kits coming out and prices will fall. Hang on and watch the market.
Dont buy DDR4

Thank you Nine Layer Nige,

I will have a look out for oncoming parts that could be the next big beast 🙂

 

[Bawzlife]

It will still run in dual channel with 4 stick's, I've always used 4 sticks of RAM. No you won't get quad channel memory though, only Threadripper and Intel HEDT support quad channel memory. I also have the same memory as you, 4 x Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000Mhz but paired with a i9 10850K.

Hello Nighthawk

I just bought another set of the ram and unfortunately it did not work.
The pc is not booting up, I then saw that the motherboard does not support my ram in a double configuration. How do you do it?

 

[Nighthawk117]

Hello Nighthawk

I just bought another set of the ram and unfortunately it did not work.
The pc is not booting up, I then saw that the motherboard does not support my ram in a double configuration. How do you do it?

Hi, that's unfortunate. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say your motherboard doesn't support your RAM in double configuration, can you clarify what you mean?

Otherwise things to check:

1. Confirm the new set of RAM works first, take out your old set and put the new set in. I can't find the details on you motherboard but normally you'd populate slots 2 and 4 first.
2. Do you have have each kit matched to a single channel. So original kit, slots 2 and 4, new kit 1 and 3 ect..
3. Reset CMOS

In terms of what I did, I didn't do anything special. I just put the new set in the remaining slots and it worked. I have 3 Corsair Vengeance kits at the moment and they all work fine together. Only recent RAM compatibility issues I've had has been on Ryzen not Intel so would be a little surprised.

 

[Bawzlife]

Hi, that's unfortunate. I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say your motherboard doesn't support your RAM in double configuration, can you clarify what you mean?

Otherwise things to check:

1. Confirm the new set of RAM works first, take out your old set and put the new set in. I can't find the details on you motherboard but normally you'd populate slots 2 and 4 first.
2. Do you have have each kit matched to a single channel. So original kit, slots 2 and 4, new kit 1 and 3 ect..
3. Reset CMOS

In terms of what I did, I didn't do anything special. I just put the new set in the remaining slots and it worked. I have 3 Corsair Vengeance kits at the moment and they all work fine together. Only recent RAM compatibility issues I've had has been on Ryzen not Intel so would be a little surprised.

Hello Nighthawk

What I mean is, accordingly to asus webpage (I just discovered this) the CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 is only supported in dual memory, and not in quad(Asus z370-e DRAM info). Please see attached picture Picture from Asus support . If I wanted a "double" configuration, meaning I would want 4 ram sticks I would have to go with one like "CORSAIR CMK64GX4M4B3000C15(Ver4.31)(XMP) 4 * 16GB 15-17-17-35 1.35" This type of Ram from Corsair would run with quad support on my motherboard, but from my understanding not the current one I have.

I have tested the pc with only the two new ram stick. Work fantastic, even with a 3/4. But as soon as I plug-in the 4th. It will not boot up.
The slots are in proper setting- I have also switched them around.

I will give it a go with the CMOS reset shortly!
Thank you for your quick reply.

 

[Nighthawk117]

Hello Nighthawk

What I mean is, accordingly to asus webpage (I just discovered this) the CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 is only supported in dual memory, and not in quad(Asus z370-e DRAM info). Please see attached picture Picture from Asus support . If I wanted a "double" configuration, meaning I would want 4 ram sticks I would have to go with one like "CORSAIR CMK64GX4M4B3000C15(Ver4.31)(XMP) 4 * 16GB 15-17-17-35 1.35" This type of Ram from Corsair would run with quad support on my motherboard, but from my understanding not the current one I have.

I have tested the pc with only the two new ram stick. Work fantastic, even with a 3/4. But as soon as I plug-in the 4th. It will not boot up.
The slots are in proper setting- I have also switched them around.

I will give it a go with the CMOS reset shortly!
Thank you for your quick reply.

Oh ok I see what you mean, so on the QVL list you have there it doesn't have the 4 x CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 listed as approved. However that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work, it probably means that it just wasn't tested. Can I just confirm the placement of each DIM, do you have original kit in slots 2 and 4? Be aware resetting the CMOS will clear your bios settings, occasionally I've found this to correct certain niggles after hardware changes.

 

[Bawzlife]

Oh ok I see what you mean, so on the QVL list you have there it doesn't have the 4 x CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 listed as approved. However that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work, it probably means that it just wasn't tested. Can I just confirm the placement of each DIM, do you have original kit in slots 2 and 4? Be aware resetting the CMOS will clear your bios settings, occasionally I've found this to correct certain niggles after hardware changes.

My original kit is mounted in A2 and B2 as required by the manual to the motherboard.
I will give it a go! 🙂

 

[Nighthawk117]

My original kit is mounted in A2 and B2 as required by the manual to the motherboard.
I will give it a go!

Ok that sounds correct to me.