Upgrade for P6T motherboard questions

[Georce Johnson]

Hi. My P6T motherboard currently has 3x2GB of DDR3 memory filling half the slots. I would really like to fill the other 3 slots with 3x4GB, for a total of 18GB.

I'm just wondering if this is doable, and should I be trying to match the brand and frequency? Help is appreciated.

CPU-Z lists my current DRAM Frequency at 534.5 MHz (which I don't understand), and Voltage at 1.5v.

 

[Darkbreeze]

From another thread:

The board clearly supports 24GB of memory and has 6 slots. 24 / 6 = 4. The mobo can accept 4GB sticks.

You should add RAM in matched groups of three sticks, or you lose lose memory performance. All sticks should be the same spec or it will all run at the speed of the slowest stick.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Your RAM can run up to 1600MHz when overclocked. At stock, the setting is 1066. The reason why you're seeing 534.5 is because your RAM speed is the bus speed multiplied by the RAM multiplier (or ~ratio). Your ratio is 2:8 (which is a 4 multiplier) and your cpu base clock is 133 MHz. So, 133 MHz x 4 equals 532. The formula is concrete, but the actual readings may vary, thus you seeing 534.5.

 

[sportsfanboy]

You can run more memory, but the first i7's have a relatively weak memory controller. So depending on the frequency, you might need to add some qpi/dram voltage to run stable, or in some cases boot.

Whats the spec of your ram? You should be able to run much faster than 1066mhz

 

[Georce Johnson]

Whats the spec of your ram? You should be able to run much faster than 1066mhz

Below is my RAM info. Do I need to match the Patriot brand for the upgrade?
And is this RAM I have considered too slow to bother hanging onto?

Thanks for the info, guys.

 

[sportsfanboy]

You don't have to match ram, but it helps. Mainly because different ram can require higher or lower voltage and different timings.

With the ram you have it's a tough call. On one hand I don't like recomnding in buying older slower ram. And on the other I don't want to tell you buy a new set of higher density triple channel kit.

If youre not intimidated buy selling old parts, maybe sell what you have and buy a newer faster, 12gb set on ebay used. Most decent ram companies carry lifetime warranties, so you're pretty safe in that department.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So long as each 3 module group is comprised of matched modules, in your case probably just 1333mhz modules, you should be fine. If you can get 3 faster matched modules for less than the 1333mhz, I say that's fine too and would leave you with several options.

1. Leave it that way permanently. It will run each 3 module group at the 1333mhz speed, which is fine in this case, you wouldn't have paid more for it anyway.

2. Leave it that way temporarily and later on get another 3 matched modules of the same speed which would then allow them to all run at the faster speed.

3. Get 3 more compatible, but not matched modules, and have them all run at whichever speed is lowest since the dual and triple channel configurations don't actually add as much to the overall performance as simply having more functional RAM does.

As expected, the performance difference between single channel and dual channel memory using an up-to-date Core 2 Duo processor is little to nil, depending on the benchmark - most tests show differences, but they are really small. For games and enthusiast PCs, we recommend sticking to high-performance dual channel RAM, because the memory is one of those components that you want to perform best for a smooth experience.

For regular applications, though, it doesn’t really matter much whether you run single or dual channel.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/PARALLEL-PROCESSING,1705-15.html

Your board supports DDR3 from 1066mhz up to 2000mhz. I would NOT get anything lower than the 1333mhz you currently have or else you'll actually slow things down. I also wouldn't go with 2000mhz because it's significantly more expensive than 1866mhz and does not offer a substantial performance increase over the 1866mhz.

 

[Georce Johnson]

OK, I've got a lot more to go on now. Thanks all for sharing your expertise.

 

[Darkbreeze]

By the way, in my last post I meant to say, I would NOT get anything lower than the 1333mhz you already have. Sorry about that typo. Hope it wasn't confusing too much. Heh.