[SOLVED] Motherboard ram slot died, Whats my best option for gaming?

[glaudiusmaximus]

So one of two ram slots on my 3 year old motherboard has died recently and I have be having difficulty finding a replacement do to the age of my CPU and wanting to still overclock the CPU. My motherboard is a ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming ITX/ac with a i7-8700K overclocked to 5.0GHz and 2 8GB ram sticks for a total of 16GB with a speed of 3200 MHz. I can still run my PC with the good ram slot which is the first channel but want to know if I do any of the following, which one will be best for gaming.

Option One: The motherboards I've been able to find do not support overclocking. If I get one of those I will lose CPU speed but have 16GB of ram with two sticks.

Option Two: Keep the motherboard but get a single ram stick of 16GB which will keep my CPU speed of 5.0Ghz but I know two sticks of ram preform better than one.

Option Three: Any other ideas you might come up with except getting a new CPU.

I appreciate any assistance.

 

[SamirD]

So it's a question of which will lose you the least. You basically lose dual-channel or you lose your overclock. So it depends on which one benefits you more for what you are using it for. If it's the OC, single channel it is. If it's the dual channel, OC is history.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Where do you live?

 

[glaudiusmaximus]

So it's a question of which will lose you the least. You basically lose dual-channel or you lose your overclock. So it depends on which one benefits you more for what you are using it for. If it's the OC, single channel it is. If it's the dual channel, OC is history.

Yup, thats exactly what I'm trying to figure out.

 

[glaudiusmaximus]

Where do you live?

I live in Connecticut.

 

[Third-Eye]

So one of two ram slots on my 3 year old motherboard has died recently and I have be having difficulty finding a replacement do to the age of my CPU and wanting to still overclock the CPU. My motherboard is a ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming ITX/ac with a i7-8700K overclocked to 5.0GHz and 2 8GB ram sticks for a total of 16GB with a speed of 3200 MHz. I can still run my PC with the good ram slot which is the first channel but want to know if I do any of the following, which one will be best for gaming.

Option One: The motherboards I've been able to find do not support overclocking. If I get one of those I will lose CPU speed but have 16GB of ram with two sticks.

Option Two: Keep the motherboard but get a single ram stick of 16GB which will keep my CPU speed of 5.0Ghz but I know two sticks of ram preform better than one.

Option Three: Any other ideas you might come up with except getting a new CPU.

I appreciate any assistance.

Sometimes dead ram slots on intel lga socket systems means a CPU pin is bent, broken or melted and will make a channel stop working. If you feel comfortable doing it, check your CPU socket. Sometimes fixing a bent pin just requires reseating the CPU in the socket.

If you do have a bad CPU socket pin, the "best cheapest" option for an in place replacement would be an i5-11400/F and a good B560 motherboard for around $345-385 or you could spend $95-115 more for a Ryzen 5 5600X and B550 motherboard, as the 5600X much more commonly available now and a faster CPU. You get ram overclocking with intel 11th gen i5 on B560, but you get ram and CPU overclocking with Ryzen.

The ram you have now is fine and would only need an upgrade for 32GB total. 2x16GB would be best instead of mixing in another 2x8GB kit later, but mixing can still work fine if you know how to deal with the possible issues and limitations.

 

[glaudiusmaximus]

Sometimes dead ram slots on intel lga socket systems means a CPU pin is bent, broken or melted and will make a channel stop working. If you feel up to comfortable doing it, check your CPU socket. Sometimes fixing a bent pin just requires reseating the CPU in the socket.

If you do have a bad CPU socket pin, the "best cheapest" option for an in place replacement would be an i5-11400/F and a good B560 motherboard for around $345-385 or you could spend $95-115 more for a Ryzen 5 5600X and B550 motherboard, as the 5600X much more commonly available now and a faster CPU. You get ram overclocking with intel 11th gen i5 on B560, but you get ram and CPU overclocking with Ryzen.

The ram you have now is fine and would only need an upgrade for 32GB total. 2x16GB would be best instead of mixing in another 2x8GB kit later, but mixing can still work fine if you know how to deal with the possible issues and limitations.

Interesting, I will try than once Ive got some time, but im still interested if higher CPU speed is better vs ram size for gaming.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

Honestly if your ram slot has truly gone bad then you run the risk of other things failing on the motherboard. Then on gaming with only one stick of ram will probably cause you to never be happy with the performance. I would invest in a new motherboard and upgraded cpu.

 

[SamirD]

Yup, thats exactly what I'm trying to figure out.

We need to know what you're using it for to give you an idea.

 

[SamirD]

...im still interested if higher CPU speed is better vs ram size for gaming.

It really depends on the game. If it hammers memory vs the cpu, faster memory better. If it hammers cpu, faster cpu better.

 

[glaudiusmaximus]

Thanks for all the help guys. My friend was able to find me a replacement motherboard.

 

[SamirD]

Awesome, glad you got it fixed.

 

[lionheart13]

5GHz cpu is crazy speeds. I’m running 3.4ghz and don’t even feel like the cpu is crippling me. Loading speeds can be better but it’s not so bad.
On the other hand, I upgraded from 16gb to 32GB and feel like a cpu upgrade would have given me More performance, but at a much higher Cost.