Opinion : Worth to bump up my ram?

[petermartin]

I have a 6 years old desktop using AMD Phenom II 965 which I used very often for daily mail, surfing and some programming work.
It has been partially upgraded once to a 256gb SSD and an additional 4gb ram.
Data is still on HDD.

Currently, the ram config is a 2x2gb + 1x4gb = total 8gb

However, the 4gb ram has been giving problem over the years and has recently gone very bad that it is giving BSOD on hardware failure quite often.
The problem is gone whenever I remove the piece of 4gb ram.
Thus, the possible problem that I can conclude are
- faulty 4 gb ram
- faulty ram slot (but I have tried with both slot for the 4gb ram)
- incompatible ram config of 2gb, 2gb on 1 channel and 4gb on 1 channel

Whichever the reason, I will be left with 4gb of ram.

And, using cpu-z, it tells me my ram speed is 666mhz

I am wondering if it is worth to bump the ram up with 1 or 2 piece of 8gb ram.
What kind of performance I can expect if
- only the ram speed is increase from 666Mhz to 1333Mhz (I suppose as the motherboard doc says it support 1333mhz)
- both ram increase from 8gb to 16gb and speed from 666Mhz to 1333Mhz

Thanks for any idea.

 

[The Paladin]

usually you don't mix dual with single sticks. (I know lot of people do it but...)
since your getting issues, find a nice set of 4x2gb and get a steady 8gb of ram.
higher memory speed matched your motherboard bus, the better optimized your data flow will be.

 

[petermartin]

Thanks for the advice.

But as it's rather difficult (expensive) to get hold of a 2gb ram, it seems that replacing all of them with a 8gb can be an alternative.

The question is with a setup like mine, how much an increase in performance can I expect from upgrading the ram to 16 gb, will it be worth it?

Thanks.

 

[The Paladin]

yes for the same price of 8GB ram you can upgrade to a DDR3 motherboard.. I know. unless you play patience on ebay and get a sneak in deal like I did. what make/model is your motherboard ?

 

[petermartin]

My motherboard is ECS A790GXM-AD3 .

It does support DDR3.
I rea the manual again, it mention that during that time, there is only 2gb ram? Thus, only 2gb ram is tested, though it support up to 8gb on 1 slot

 

[The Paladin]

well the maual I found for your motherboard https://www.manualslib.com/manual/451752/Ecs-A790gxm-Ad3.html?page=9#manual
states on that page and I quote

Memory
Supports DDR3 1333/1066/800 DDR3 SDRAM with Dual-channel
architecture, Accommodates four unbuffered DIMMs
Up to 8 GB per DIMM with maximum memory size up to 32 GB

So you could get plenty of ram for cheapo for this system easily

about 50$ for 8gb (2x4gb)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=DDR3+1333&ignorear=0&N=-1&isNodeId=1

 

[petermartin]

Thanks!

Will look for the options available.