Triple Channel RAM Usage

[eman8950]

I have a Dell Precision T5500 and am looking to upgrade my RAM. The MB has triple channel DIMMs and mine are currently holding 6 1GB sticks. I Use SolidWorks which recommends a minimum of 8GB RAM. My setup has been getting very laggy as I've started doing larger and larger assembly jobs.

Anyways, I understand the main differences between RAM capacities, speeds, pin-counts, CAS-Latency, etc., etc. What I'm not super familiar with is proper channel utilization. Could I see better or similar performance using 3 sticks of 4GB Triple Channel RAM (12GB Total) as I would get using 2 sticks of 8GB Dual Channel RAM (16GB Total).

Also, Dell's recommended RAM is RDIMM (Registered). What differences would I see if, or should I not even consider using Unregistered?

 

[kanewolf]

You would see better performance getting a matched triple channel set of 3x4GB than you would with 2x8GB. You would be leaving 1/3 of the memory performance of the CPU on the table with the dual channel implementation.

 

[Tradesman1]

The board is set up to Dell's propriatary specs so would stick with Registerd DRAM and prob 3x4 - can check the manual, but not even sure if it will support dual channel - should but I'd check the manual.

 

[eman8950]

You would see better performance getting a matched triple channel set of 3x4GB than you would with 2x8GB. You would be leaving 1/3 of the memory performance of the CPU on the table with the dual channel implementation.

The board is set up to Dell's propriatary specs so would stick with Registerd DRAM and prob 3x4 - can check the manual, but not even sure if it will support dual channel - should but I'd check the manual.

Hey thanks for the replies guys. That is what I was thinking would be the case but I have no real experience in this kind of stuff! I will be going with 3x4GB registered. Thanks again.