Memory Upgrading from 6GB to 12GB - Compatibility help?

Hey guys

I currently have 6GB of OCZ 1333MHz RAM at CL7.

I'm wanting to upgrade to 12GB but finding the same RAM as stuff I have is near impossible since OCZ are out of the RAM business now.

Should I just stick some CL9 in with it, or buy a whole new 12GB set?

Also I'm trying to keep as close to my stable 4GHz overclock as I can without having to drop it too much. My ram is underclocked by around 80MHz or so - bit of a lazy overclock I know

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Bump - Anyoneee?

 

hmmm

you "should" have no issue with adding a second set providing all the memory timings and speed and voltage match.

not sure if you will manage to keep your 4Ghz though depends wether your memory controller holds up to using both triple channels

best practice would be to sell your 6GB kit buy a 12GB (3x4) of DDR1600 and job done really.

 

I suppose you have a X58 system, then the only thing which can give you problems with 12GB is the memory controller, so if you haven't already bumped the memory controller voltage, then increase it, setting it to 1.25V should be more than enough.

 

Hmm. So If I did go le-cheap way and just buy some CL9 stuff, would I just loosen the timings on the whole lot to CL9?

I think the memory controller has a slight bump from stock, but I think I still have a bit of room to play with.

Any suggestions on any specific ram to get if I go the extra 6GB 1333MHz CL9 or the new 12GB 1600MHz way?

Yeah I do have X58 (ASUS P6T Workstation Professional - for my 2 x 15k SAS drives Not swapping her out till I get some socket 2011 on the go... and some money haha.

 

from experience trying to get 6 channels to work on an x58 board (in my case 24GB) its a safer bet to get the 12GB in 3x 4GB sticks, because its a real hassle to get it stable otherwise

 

Updating the motherboard bios should solve this. It worked for me.

Cheers,

Simon.

 

again, not necessarily.

 

timings make very little difference in reality so buy a decent brand kit which ever is cheapest.

all your timings should match although you can different timings on each channel - hell i think mine will let me assign them individually its best to keep everything the same for stability.

 

I did consider a 3 x 4GB kit but I'm trying to keep the costs down =/ I don't plan on having this system for more than the next 18 months since that'll be 3 and a 1/2 years on my old 920 and it could do with an update by then (16/18/24GB DDR4 being the norm by then for workstations possibly)

Just didn't want to invest too much money into it, especially 1.65v ram since nothing after 1156 or 1366 can use it due to 1155 using 1.5v

 

i would agree to sell the 6gb and get 3 sticks of 4gb. overclocking with 6 sticks is not as stable. secondly lga2011 will probably require DDR4 memory so the 12gb well probably not work well in the new system. i just bought the corsair dominator c9 from newegg, setup with XMS enabled in the EVGA bios and they are perfectly stable @1600. just a word on the new lga2011 configuration. I am planning now on upgrading also and the new 2011boards will probably be expensive $400 and the CPU will only be the extreme series on these boards, $1000, plus the new memory will be expensive because it is new , $400 my guess. I am anticipating getting $500 for my 975 CPU, $100 for the EVGA X58 SLI mobo and $150 for the 12GB of corsair ram. So it will be about $1000 to upgrade from my present system, but it should be a killer.

 

Nice wild guesses there checkup. For one thing DDR4 won't be released to the mass market until 2015, so LGA2011 is going to be using DDR3.

 

As Uxon said, ddr4 won't be released on the mass market till 2015, lga 2011 and cpu's will not only be extreme series, we probably won't have another i7 920 at launch though

 

Yeah I was thinking DDR4 wasn't due out for a while - I wasn't anticipating 2015 - I was guessing more along the lines of ate 2012/early 2013 and making a new chipset mid way through the cycle that could handle DDR4 on Socket 2011 (sort of like the DDR2/3 deal on 775)

Anyway - It seems the consensus is on 12GB in a 4x3 config. I know what I'll be working for in the summer (providing I get can even get a job in todays climate! haha)

Thanks for your help folks! Much appreciated.