RAM upgrade advice for i7 930 system.

[CaptainFwiffo]

Here's what I have:

Core i7 930
Mobo: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Ram: 6GB (1066 Mhz I think)
Gfx: GTX 660

My system is about 4 years old now and had frequent display driver crashes and BSOD's until I replaced the graphics card (Radeon HD5970 dumped in favor of GTX 660).

I was thinking about replacing the Mobo and CPU for an i5, but that seems unnecessary now that the system is stable.

I would however like to upgrade my Ram. I've considered 2*8gb in dual channel mode or 3*4gb in tri channel. My questions are:

1. Will having 1600Mhz ram make my processor explode in an enormous fireball since it's stated to be able to handle 800 and 1066 Mhz?

2. Would 12 gb Ram in tri channel be better than 16 gb in dual channel?

3. Is it possible to buy two DIMMs in one package and a single one in another package so long as they're the same make, model, capacity and speed, and have them work correctly in tri channel mode?

4. Would upgrading the Cpu and Mobo be a good option to take advantage of faster Ram?

 

[James Mason]

1. No explosions.
2. You've got a triple channel mobo, so stick with triple channel.
3. Not really no.
4. Your motherboard supports ram up to 2200mhz, that's pretty fast, but your processor will actually show it's age soon.

Note though, that triple channel motherboards aren't that popular now, so if you go with a triple channel kit, a future dual channel or quad channel motherboard won't take the ram very well/at all.

You could upgrade to an i5 with 8gbs of ram at 1600 and keep that "newish" GPU. (It's a bit old but meh)

An i5 would probably be overkill for that gpu though, but if you upgraded your GPU again later they would be more evenly matched.

You could go with an i3-4130 and get very strong performance in anything that isn't a super CPU intensive computing action, like playing a game while also streaming it.

This is just a sample of what a "new" computer would cost you:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.86 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Mwave)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $465.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 19:35 EDT-0400)

 

[CaptainFwiffo]

I'd like to ask you about your answer to my question 3.

Assuming I buy two of this kit: G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 2x4GB.

Then I take three out of the four DIMMS and use them in Tri channel on my current rig. Will that work?

Let's also assume that I will use all four DIMMS in a future upgrade to 1150 and an i3 or i5.

Edit: I also found a link to this: http://cdn.overclock.net/e/ec/900x900px-LL-ece8148a_DDR3TRIDUALCHANNEL.jpeg

Is this correct?

 

[Karadjgne]

Mixing ram is never a good idea, even with brand new identical ram. Best bet if you were to do that would be s 4x4Gb kit, which are ram sticks all from the same batch. Use 3 in your tri-channel setup for now, then when you do upgrade the mobo, you will still have a matched set of ram you can use.

I have an i5 3570k with a 660ti, runs just fine, but CPU, gpu and ram are all OC. While not as strong a CPU as my i5, the i3 has the advantage of hyperthreading, so will act as a 4 core CPU when games demand it.

Current games are at this time hard pressed to use even a full 8Gb of ram, so having 12-16Gb is actually overkill, you would do just fine using a dual channel 8Gb kit, its also much cheaper, and that could be money put towards your other upgrades.

 

[James Mason]

Hmm, it appears you can use dual channel memory in your motherboard:
http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList/Manual/mb_manual_ga-x58a-ud3r_v2.0_e.pdf
Page 16

 

[CaptainFwiffo]

Mixing ram is never a good idea, even with brand new identical ram. Best bet if you were to do that would be s 4x4Gb kit, which are ram sticks all from the same batch. Use 3 in your tri-channel setup for now, then when you do upgrade the mobo, you will still have a matched set of ram you can use.

If I may ask, what kind of problems can arise from using two sets of DIMMs that are identical but bought separately?
Let me illustrate:

Step 1: Person buys 2x4gb 1600 mhz memory kit. Installs on pc.
Step 2: Person decides he wants more memory, buys a second identical kit made by the same manufacturer, he installs on his pc.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Person's computer blows up.

Is that close to what you mean?

 

[James Mason]

Person's computer will never blow up it will just get blue screens of death at random times.

Nothing even gets damaged except data that wasn't saved properly.

 

[CaptainFwiffo]

In which case, I'll go with the 2x4gb memory in dual channel and consider upgrading the cpu and mobo in the future. Thanks guys.