If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
P6X58D triple channel vs 2 sticks ram
Does anyone think I would see any real world difference between
upgrading to 12 gb (3, 4 gb sticks) in triple channel mode or 16 gb using 2 eight gb sticks? I currently have 6 gb (3, two gb sticks) and want to add memory. I would replace the 3, 2 gb sticks. The price is comparable. Thanks |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
P6X58D triple channel vs 2 sticks ram
dave wrote:
Does anyone think I would see any real world difference between upgrading to 12 gb (3, 4 gb sticks) in triple channel mode or 16 gb using 2 eight gb sticks? I currently have 6 gb (3, two gb sticks) and want to add memory. I would replace the 3, 2 gb sticks. The price is comparable. Thanks I just tried the Crucial site, and all they recommend is 4GB sticks as their largest. http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compat.../ASUS/p6x58d-e The memory support is a function of the CPU, but it can be difficult to track down the details. You could try ark.intel.com and see. For example, i7-980 takes six sticks at 4GB each, 24GB max. http://ark.intel.com/products/58664/...l-QPI?q=i7-980 And personally, I'd be careful. When I bought sticks, they were 4GB single-sided. The higher speed memory ("unnecessarily fast"), is made with a certain brand of chip. It's a chip suited to making 8GB DIMMs. To make 4GB DIMMs, they half-populate it, and the DIMM is single sided. If you run such a stick on your system, there is a danger it will be detected as a 2GB stick. Older, slower grades of memory, uses a memory chip which is half as dense as this new stuff. And that older generation of memory, would be detected as a proper 4GB stick. If I was buying memory for your system, I would use the Crucial search results to select memory, or Kingston (valueram.com etc) has datasheets. What I'd be looking for, is 4GB double sided DIMMs with 16 chips. Just so I wouldn't run into any rotten surprises. (I don't know for a *fact* there is a problem, but I have seen this problem before, in previous years.) I don't like the new 8GB DIMM family for this reason. When they want to make 4GB DIMMs, they no longer make them with 16 chips, and instead make single sided ones with eight. And that could cause problems when you get it home and install it. If the memory controller doesn't have the address bit for the newer chips, the memory capacity is "half-detected". Just so you have some idea what is happening, when you get the new stuff. So if I was buying it, I would either need a "guarantee" from the seller, that is is compatible. Or, I would need a datasheet that promises the DIMM will always be double sided. At one time, Kingston was always honest. But they slipped up once, in the 1GB/2GB era, and started shipping whatever they felt like. Which causes problems for systems with a 1GB limit. And as a result, if I had the Kingston data sheet, great, but I'd have to back up the info, with some actual pictures of the DIMMs, and make a guess on sided-ness from there. What Kingston was doing with the 1GB/2GB era stuff, is the memory chips used were nearly equal in costs. They could use 16 lower-density chips, or 8 higher-density chips. And they'd change their minds every other week as to the cheapest way to build the DIMMs from parts. This is *not* how you manage products which are backed up by a published datasheet. And they never used to do that. They used to be trustworthy. Now it means extra work. If Kingston will give you a "guarantee" of compatibility, then, fine. I used to shop Kingston, using and trusting the datasheet. If the drawing showed 16 chips, then I could know in advance there wouldn't be any "density issues". ******* Do you have a good reason to go from 3*2GB to 3*4GB ? Running multiple virtual machines might be a reason. Maybe something like Microsoft Flight Simulator. Or 7ZIP can use a fair amount of RAM, if you crank up the knobs on the compressor. Checking peak memory consumption, used to be the method used to predict whether more RAM was needed, but on the modern OSes, this info can be a bit harder to find. In this WinXP example, the user at some point in the day, was using 324538KB. You would need to find the equivalent "Peak Commit Charge" on your current OS, to determine whether extra RAM is needed. You can certainly install extra RAM and use it as a RAM disk. http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/memor...p/image004.gif This product will make a 4GB RAM Disk for you to play with, for free. All you need is left-over RAM. Right now, my machine has a 4GB RAM Disk on it. And another 4GB for a 32 bit Windows OS. Sometimes, when I unpack a tarball with 60,000 files on it, I put it on the RAM Disk. Not actually because the RAM Disk is fast, but because doing so doesn't fragment other partitions. The RAM Diks has blistering sequential speed (4GB/sec on my puny machine), but when you make calls through the file system, the file system throttles things to the point the RAM Disk feels no faster than a conventional hard drive. So don't be surprised if this thing is a letdown. But I still use it for things like a scratch disk for GIMP photo editor. (Ramdisk Lite) http://memory.dataram.com/products-a...ftware/ramdisk Paul |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
P6X58D triple channel vs 2 sticks ram
Thanks for the detailed reply Paul. I wasn't aware
of these other issues. I want more ram because I've joined the "crowd funded" new mmo game called Star Citizen, which is advising a minimum of 8gb when it gets going. Its still in alpha stage now. Crucial has a 16gb kit (4x4). This set in my triple channel mb would perform as well as it could? Basically ignoring the triple channel feature of the mb? My cpu is the i7 920. Thanks |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
P6X58D triple channel vs 2 sticks ram
dave wrote:
Thanks for the detailed reply Paul. I wasn't aware of these other issues. I want more ram because I've joined the "crowd funded" new mmo game called Star Citizen, which is advising a minimum of 8gb when it gets going. Its still in alpha stage now. Crucial has a 16gb kit (4x4). This set in my triple channel mb would perform as well as it could? Basically ignoring the triple channel feature of the mb? My cpu is the i7 920. Thanks There is a selector at the top of the page called "Kit Quantity". If you set that to three, for a triple channel board, they do have a three-stick kit. That gets the price to $149.99. http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/p6x58d-e/CT2586858 When you get the kit, you'll be able to run 3x2GB (original config) 3x4GB (new RAM) 3x2GB + 3x4GB (both kits - all six slots filled) How well the latter 18GB combination works, depends on what speed the old ones were running at, and what clocking options you find for the RAM. Your board supports XMP profiles. That's a table stored on the DIMM, that tells the computer how to run more than the normal configuration, sets the voltage for you and so on. When you mix sets of DIMMs, I don't think the BIOS is going to know what to do. Instead of following any XMP entries, it will use the regular SPD entries. It always knows what to do, but won't be running any automatic overclocking entries. When you run six sticks, there will be more opportunities for manual tweaks. Whereas running just the three sticks, more automatic options can be available. The Crucial kits appear to be 1.5V, whereas some of the higher speed kits (not of much use to you perhaps), are 1.65V. So you could have a 1.65V kit already. There should not be a problem combining them - it would mean running all six sticks at 1.65V perhaps. So mixing the kits does present some challenges. What you could do, is keep the old sticks in their antistatic container, for a day when you want to try the 18GB configuration. And just use the 3x4GB set when it arrives. ******* You can learn something about the existing 3x2GB set, using CPU-Z. Download the non-install version and give it a try. It should give various bits of info about the existing RAM, whether it's running tight or loose timing, a high or low frequency and so on. Just so you have some idea how close the two kits are, to matching. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html You can also use a copy of memtest86+, make some boot media before the kit arrives, and use that to test the new kit. Testing with memtest86+ before attempting to boot Windows or Linux, is to prevent bad RAM from doing something to the OS installation. I ran this on my sticks when they arrived. (Downloads are 50% of the way down the page...) http://www.memtest.org/ Traditionally, I use the floppy based version, for old time sake. On the new build, I used a USB floppy drive, and shoved my memtest test floppy in there. I think one of the tests, I left it running until the next morning. Basically, I want to do at least one complete test pass. There is a pass counter on the screen, so you can tell when it is done. The test will run forever if you leave it. In this sample photo, it's running Test #2. The test that shows errors reasonably well, is Test #5. You can see the test pass counter is still zero here, so there is a good bit of testing to go. http://www.memtest.org/pics/amd64-big.gif I also run Prime95 (just the torture test portion) from mersenne.org/freesoft download page. I ran that for eight hours on the new build. It draws a fair amount of power, and makes the CPU heat up. It also is a good test for the RAM, if you select the right size of memory space to test. Versions of the program are available for Windows and Linux. When I ran that on the new board, the VCore heatsink was scalding hot to the touch. My build ended up with an extra fan pointed at the VCore heatsink. I have another board, with an extra-large heatsink, it never gets more than luke-warm. And Prime95 doesn't threaten any part of that machine, when it runs the CPU flat out. Adding fans and installing cooling on the build, took more time than anything else. It took several days, to make custom mounts for fans. For example, one fan mount slides into a 5.25" drive bay, and uses the bay for mechanical support. I hate having to make stuff like that, but it's the only way to satisfy my urge to build cool-running stuff :-) Don't want the new board to fry or anything. Testing for errors, checking temperatures, are all part of the build process. Paul |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
P6X58D triple channel vs 2 sticks ram
Paul wrote in :
dave wrote: Thanks for the detailed reply Paul. I wasn't aware of these other issues. I want more ram because I've joined the "crowd funded" new mmo game called Star Citizen, which is advising a minimum of 8gb when it gets going. Its still in alpha stage now. Crucial has a 16gb kit (4x4). This set in my triple channel mb would perform as well as it could? Basically ignoring the triple channel feature of the mb? My cpu is the i7 920. Thanks There is a selector at the top of the page called "Kit Quantity". If you set that to three, for a triple channel board, they do have a three-stick kit. That gets the price to $149.99. http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/p6x58d-e/CT2586858 When you get the kit, you'll be able to run 3x2GB (original config) 3x4GB (new RAM) 3x2GB + 3x4GB (both kits - all six slots filled) How well the latter 18GB combination works, depends on what speed the old ones were running at, and what clocking options you find for the RAM. Your board supports XMP profiles. That's a table stored on the DIMM, that tells the computer how to run more than the normal configuration, sets the voltage for you and so on. When you mix sets of DIMMs, I don't think the BIOS is going to know what to do. Instead of following any XMP entries, it will use the regular SPD entries. It always knows what to do, but won't be running any automatic overclocking entries. When you run six sticks, there will be more opportunities for manual tweaks. Whereas running just the three sticks, more automatic options can be available. The Crucial kits appear to be 1.5V, whereas some of the higher speed kits (not of much use to you perhaps), are 1.65V. So you could have a 1.65V kit already. There should not be a problem combining them - it would mean running all six sticks at 1.65V perhaps. So mixing the kits does present some challenges. What you could do, is keep the old sticks in their antistatic container, for a day when you want to try the 18GB configuration. And just use the 3x4GB set when it arrives. ******* You can learn something about the existing 3x2GB set, using CPU-Z. Download the non-install version and give it a try. It should give various bits of info about the existing RAM, whether it's running tight or loose timing, a high or low frequency and so on. Just so you have some idea how close the two kits are, to matching. http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html You can also use a copy of memtest86+, make some boot media before the kit arrives, and use that to test the new kit. Testing with memtest86+ before attempting to boot Windows or Linux, is to prevent bad RAM from doing something to the OS installation. I ran this on my sticks when they arrived. (Downloads are 50% of the way down the page...) http://www.memtest.org/ Traditionally, I use the floppy based version, for old time sake. On the new build, I used a USB floppy drive, and shoved my memtest test floppy in there. I think one of the tests, I left it running until the next morning. Basically, I want to do at least one complete test pass. There is a pass counter on the screen, so you can tell when it is done. The test will run forever if you leave it. In this sample photo, it's running Test #2. The test that shows errors reasonably well, is Test #5. You can see the test pass counter is still zero here, so there is a good bit of testing to go. http://www.memtest.org/pics/amd64-big.gif I also run Prime95 (just the torture test portion) from mersenne.org/freesoft download page. I ran that for eight hours on the new build. It draws a fair amount of power, and makes the CPU heat up. It also is a good test for the RAM, if you select the right size of memory space to test. Versions of the program are available for Windows and Linux. When I ran that on the new board, the VCore heatsink was scalding hot to the touch. My build ended up with an extra fan pointed at the VCore heatsink. I have another board, with an extra-large heatsink, it never gets more than luke-warm. And Prime95 doesn't threaten any part of that machine, when it runs the CPU flat out. Adding fans and installing cooling on the build, took more time than anything else. It took several days, to make custom mounts for fans. For example, one fan mount slides into a 5.25" drive bay, and uses the bay for mechanical support. I hate having to make stuff like that, but it's the only way to satisfy my urge to build cool-running stuff :-) Don't want the new board to fry or anything. Testing for errors, checking temperatures, are all part of the build process. Paul Thanks for the time and effort you've put into your reply,Paul. I totally missed that selector box for the kit quantity on the Crucial site. My existing ram is OCZ 1600 at 1.5 volts, with 9 9 9 24 timings. I never even considered keeping the 6 gb I have and just adding 12 more. Seems like the way to go to me. I liked your suggestion to just use the new 12 gb first, and then later to add back my original 6 if I wanted to. I've experimented with O/Clocking so I have Cpu-z and Memtest. I have also used "Intelburntest" as a stress tester. Thanks again Dave |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
P6X58D Premium USB 3.0 speeds | dave | Asus Motherboards | 4 | August 8th 13 03:04 AM |
Bootup of P6X58D halts during POST | hrh1818[_2_] | Asus Motherboards | 3 | August 28th 12 01:36 AM |
should I use triple-channel RAM with quad-core CPU? | Bill Davidsen | Intel | 0 | February 12th 11 03:41 PM |
DDR3 Triple Channel vs DDR2 Dual Channel | Man-wai Chang ToDie (+MS=V32B) | Homebuilt PC's | 3 | June 16th 09 12:46 PM |
Can two mem sticks bought a year apart work together dual-channel? | Grady | Overclocking AMD Processors | 3 | October 13th 03 11:18 PM |