Hello all, I seek wisdom in regards to RAM for my new build. On advice from topics and reviews on this site, i have decided on the following configuration, my budget is £1000 inc monitor and GFX card and I intend to use my new rig for gaming and the usual suchlike. CPU: i7 920 d0 stepping £214.87 MOBO: Asus P6T SE £134 GFX: XFX ATI Radeon 5850 HD 750Mhz £198.95 Storage:1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 £57.99 Optical: Sony 24x Internal DVDRW SATA Black Bare £14.98 PSU: CoolerMaster 600W Silent Pro Modular PSU £71.74 Case: Antac 902 £88.17 Cooling: Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ £30.81 (haven't decided on a monitor yet - ideally want something in the region of 20" but that decision can wait for now) You may notice i have left out the RAM from the above list, as this is the source of my problem. I had previously decided on a Core i5 system with a 1156 socket MOBO, but I made a snap decision to go for a core i7 and an appropriate mobo, however I had already bought some RAM for the previous set up: Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX XMP i5 Memory Kit CL8(8-8-8-24) 1.65V £76.22 The problem i have is this. Should I return the above memory to the seller and purchase a new kit designed for i7,or will i be able to get away with using what I currently have and purchase another 2gb stick to compliment the two i already have to make up 6gb DDR3? I have done some more searching but it appears that Kingston dont sell a single stick of 2GB DDR3 at the above frequency and latency, the closest i can find is 1600MHZ with CL9. Will this be compatible with my current memory? Will I be able to adjust the latencies so all the sticks are essentially identical and work in triple channel? Alternatively will a core i7 system run OK with only 4gb (2x2GB) RAM? If this is impossible then I will have to seek out an i7 kit of DDR3 which will probably be in the region of £120. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Mitcian.
it will work, but will only run in dual channel (as opposed to triple channel). some here will argue it makes v little difference, but in my mind if you spend that much cash on a pc you may as well max out performance. try something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166998
Hi I built a computer with same motherboard last week for a friend and I used the 3x2gb corsair 1600 ram works perfect I also am using the same ram in my i7 rig and I've got it running at a tad under 1800mhz and it rock solid
if you can return it and exchange you may as well. if not just pick up the kingston CL9 stuff at 1600mhz then set all your RAM to run at the slowest latency. to be honest latency makes very little difference to every day performance so i wouldnt worry too much. go with whatever is cheapest i.e. may be better to return the RAM and get a triple channel kit or just add an additional 2GB of RAM.
Ok so bottom line - no difference between DDR3 modules which run in dual or triple channel mode, it just depends on the number of sticks That's the most important thing. It's probably going to be cheaper to buy another stick. Thanks for the advice all.
Why buy i7, where one of the major benefits is triple-channel memory, and confine it to dual? Send the old stuff back and get matched triples!
