Memory

[komyali]

What memory to buy?

Morhetboard asus px79 - 8 slots total 64Gb.

dual kit 4x2x8gb

quad kit 2x4x8gb

octo kit 8x8gb

Diference beetween these three configuration? Is it big diference if I buy 2x8gb as a single memory or 2x8 dual kit memory? I also have here my old triple kit Patriot memory but I don't know how to put that in these slots?

Also what memory to buy 1333 1600 1866... 2400Mhz or something else? What is the best memory? What is the diference in rendering process of all these types of memoriy (or memories ? :D:D)?

[Dimitris Tolios]

As far as "quad" vs. "dual" vs "octo" kits, the difference is highly situational.

There is a chance that if you buy individual sticks, you might get a mix from different production batches, so there is a subsequent possibility of slight variation between the production batches that might end up in slight incompatibilities when attempting dual or quad channel operation.

 

Buying from vendors that push high volumes of memory, the above is highly improbable - it is not like the keep huge stocks for years, just like in most cases memory sticks rarely get "revisions".

If you want to go 64GB from the get-go, then by all means get the octo kit, as long as it is not hugely more expensive than 2x quad kits etc.

 

As far as memory speed goes, most reviews i've seen regarding general computing, going faster than 1866MHz is generally leading to diminishing returns - i.e. the 2133MHz kits are usually too expensive to worth your while. Synthetic benchmarks do give a linear bandwidth increase along with RAM speed, but ofc the huge performance jump from 1333MHz to 1866Mhz (40%) cannot be observed going from 1866Mhz to 2133Mhz (11%). Simply put, once you are @ 1866GHz (which is pretty economical today), you are fast enough.

 

For rendering purposes, it makes little or no difference, as the bottleneck in most occasions is the CPU and not the RAM bandwidth.

Here is a quick chart from Anandtech illustrating differences in Cinebench 11.5 and Sandybridge CPUs:

 

 

Obviously a typical rendering scenario like that in Cinebench doesn't care about RAM speed. It does favor lower latencies a tad, but nothing mind-blowing.

[komyali]

tnx for reply very good

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233246

I think this one would be good but the problem is noctua cooler? 44 mm is space between memory slot and cooler? recommendation ?

[Dimitris Tolios]

I would not get Corsair Vengeance or any other sticks with tall heatspreaders.

 

I have mentioned multiple times before, heat-spreaders (HS) are almost useless.

It has been observed in water cooled systems were the air-flow from the CPU cooler was removed from the equation, the RAM would overheat just as fast with or without HS. There are also cases were people removed their HS from Vengeance and other similar sticks to make room for their ND-14s etc, and saw no difference in performance or O/C potential whatsoever.

 

Additionally, some of the best o/cing memory chips out there, like Samsung 30nm PC1600 1.35V have no HS at all. I have my sticks running 24/7 @ 2333 11-11-11 and 1.5V on my P9X79 last 3 months, and temps were never an issue (in a case with 7x 120-140mm silent fans moving air around ofc)

The real problem is that atm these chips don't come at more than 4GB per stick, so you will be limited to 32GB.

 

Ofc most of the fast ram kits out there have HS for looks and to diversify appearance along with price (usually the bigger the chunk of metal, the more expensive the product), so I would try to get either Vengeance LP (low profile) or G.Skill Ares etc.

Edited December 19, 2012 by dtolios

[komyali]

DDR4 ? just read september 2012 date relase... lol this tehnology goes too fast for me

[Dimitris Tolios]

DDR4 probably won't be in our systems less than 2 years from now.

 

So far leaked Haswell specs (the architecture that will succeed Ivy Bridge that evolved out of Sandybridge - current s2011 i7 CPUs are Sandybridge - codename SB-E) indicate compatibility with DDR3.

 

IvyBridge-Extreme processors, i.e. IB-E for s2011 won't get to us before Q3-2013. So the top of the line CPUs for intel entering 2014 will most likely still using DDR3.

 

The memory controller is embedded to the CPU, so there cannot be any surprises there through a different chipset line on motherboard level.

 

Again, memory performance is rarely the bottleneck in most applications: it is the CPU. Then the GPU, then I would guess PCIe follows if you have computation tasks with multiple GPUs, HDDs/SSDs for assets etc. RAM is probably overwhelmingly fast already in comparison with the above, thus there is no rush to change.

 

The only "rush" comes from the foundries, as there is a huge oversupply of DDR3 mem chips atm, that drives the prices down, with the profit margins.

[komyali]

ok, for now it will be enough 2x8Gb (dual kit) of ddr3 so next month I can buy more

and now stupid question

if I install now two modules of dual kit memory and put it inside socket like scheme one on the left side and one on right side ( blue sockets ) later when I buy more dual kit, am I going to take out first two and then again install by scheme or just insert in... repeat process till 64Gb ?

[Dimitris Tolios]

ok, for now it will be enough 2x8Gb (dual kit) of ddr3 so next month I can buy more

and now stupid question

if I install now two modules of dual kit memory and put it inside socket like scheme one on the left side and one on right side ( blue sockets ) later when I buy more dual kit, am I going to take out first two and then again install by scheme or just insert in... repeat process till 64Gb ?

 

I have a mobo from the same line.

The user's manual describes all possible ram configurations (dimm #/Slots used etc/Quad, Dual, Single mode etc), and you should follow that.

You could also retrieve the manual in PDF format from ASUS site if you really want to plan ahead

[komyali]

That mean I need to take out every time I buy new one xD

[Dimitris Tolios]

That mean I need to take out every time I buy new one xD

 

You can plan ahead and choose the right dimm slots so you don't have to shuffle things around.

The issue will be with the ND-14.

I have a similar, huge heatsink (the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E) and both of those two are using a complicated retaining system to mount the cooler on the mobo. Even with a big case, most likely it will be pretty difficult to reach the dimm slots that the cooler overlaps.

If you cannot reach them, that means taking EVERYTHING apart, remove the mobo and probably remove the cooler before reaching those in the immediate left of the CPU ("left side"is refereed to the usual ATX configuration, not the inverted or rotated one that some cases use).