Hi, I have an asus P6X58D-E board running 12GB of 1600 Mhz (3x4) triple channel ram. If down the line I wanted to add more ram and didn't add another 12GB (3x4) to get the full 24 GB, what configuration options do I have and what implications would that have on triple channel operation. So for example If I wanted to have 16/20Gb, would this be possible assuming I used the same ram? thanks, Q.
Any configuration that wasn't identical in all 3 channels would fall back to single channel It's possible that if you had 16GB (8GB in channel 1 and 8GB in channel 2) you might get dual channel but that may depend on your motherboard.
you could have 3x4(12GB) in 1 channel set and 3x2(6GB) in another giving 16GB total you cant run 1 set of dimms in triple channel and other in dual though its triple all, dual all, or single all. just bear in mind though that windows 7 HP has a 16GB RAM limit while professional and ultimate have a limit of 192GB
Thanks chaps.. @adam_bagpuss - Yup, I luckily found this out prior to buying and went for Win7 Pro...It is pretty cheap though that they limit the amount of memory that can be addressed. I'm guessing once you have your OS written, it's more work to put in a memory cap than leave it as is... Bleeding m$.....bah
As most of the software is still 32-bit (99% of games f.e.) and therefore can't access more then 3.2GB of RAM, upgrading to more then 12GB is pretty much overkill anyways for the next 2 years to come. I've got 8GB in DualChannel and I haven't encountered any shortcommings yet. Not even when working on a multilayered 12MP-image in Photoshop which is 64-bit and could theoretically use all that RAM I get anywhere close to 4GB used. So. If you don't happen to heaviyl make use of multitasking with RAM-hungry software, never mind about adding more RAM currently.
I don't do alot of gaming but do use 3d software and After effects which is a ram guzzler...I think 12GB will do me for a bit for sure but it's all dependant on what I'm doing... Just yeserday I was working on a 3d model I had sent to me and it was very complex (but very efficiently built) and after loading it up and smoothing it to prepare for render it used close to 8GB! That was a pretty extreme case though...
Ah OK, so you're really using your machine to get some work done. That's something different then ofc And you're using all of the software that is actually available in 64-bit there... EDIT: In that case, just grab another 12GB. RAM isn't that expensive these days
