hi,i have 4 memory slots,im upgrading to 16 gb ram from 8. is there any advantage of putting in 2 8gb cards instead of 4 4gb cards?
thanks

 

depends on a platform,
consumer cpus have dual-channel RAM support, so 2 sticks are fine, and 4 won't give you any additional benefit,
some workstation cpus have quad-channel RAM support, so 4 sticks are best,
new DDR5 isn't that stable yet, so 2 sticks only are practically mandatory if you want maintain higher RAM speeds,
if you have 2x4GB you can actually buy 2x8GB and run 24GB in total, but you need to be careful about memory compatibility and preferably same tech specs (else the "better" sticks will slown down to common specs across entire RAM pool)

 

The advantage of choosing 2x8 GB is that you can always choose to update to 4x8 GB afterwards. But be aware, not all memory is suitable to fill all slots on your MB. If you want to know what memory is most suitable for your MB check the 'Quality Vendor List' of your MB on the site of your vendor. This a PDF file that will list what modules and of what brand you can use.

 

thanks for replies.my motherboard only takes 16bg max.
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
also,i just noticed today on some ram that was for sale it said non ecc . should i be getting ram that is ecc?

 

Forget about ecc. I see it's a rather old motherboard (2010)? So your options to upgrade memory are very limited. My personal advice to you would be to upgrade your whole system to something newer, but if you're budget prevents this or you're not able for some other reason something like this may fit your needs?

https://www.phs-memory.com/computer...9gtd-prousb3-ram-udimm-sp192199.html?c=106143

 

[I was going to say "I know my system is old" in previous post, hehe.
Buying new system is not an option for me.
Thanks for your time and info.
I wuld need 4 of those ram sticks, would be near £150
There are 2nd hand ones online, that seem to be compatible. I could get 4 for prob around £50.
U def. Think the ecc thing is not important?
QUOTE="RachProko, post: 725816, member: 99710"]Forget about ecc. I see it's a rather old motherboard (2010)? So your options to upgrade memory are very limited. My personal advice to you would be to upgrade your whole system to something newer, but if you're budget prevents this or you're not able for some other reason something like this may fit your needs?

https://www.phs-memory.com/computer...9gtd-prousb3-ram-udimm-sp192199.html?c=106143[/QUOTE]

 

thinking about the same. i'd go from 16 to 32. also thinking jumping to gen4 nvme as os/programs drive. choices hmm, first world problemz lol

 

not gonna hijack this thread, but keep in mind PCIe 4.0 NVME are still not performing that great at random 4K read/write (<70MB/s despite specs showing off sequential 7000MB/s), so even on an older platform, limited by PCIe 3.0, using PCIe 4.0 NVME SSDs might prove beneficial at certain workloads, assuming one would have effective use for it

 

>buying
https://downloadmoreram.com

 

hi again,just curious has anyone else any opinion on ecc? is buying a non ecc ram a bad idea?

 

"ECC memory is generally 10-20% more expensive than non-ECC memory. Most surprising however, is that ECC memory will slow your system performance down by an estimated 2-3 percent! "

Google has this to say about it. It's an older machine, and I wouldn't be spending extra money on it; like the above suggestions. Buy the less expensive option, you will not notice any big difference.

 

ECC is error correction feature, it's meant primarily for servers, most consumer CPUs don't even support it, imo it's waste of money for a calsual work/home computer

 

thanks for replies