Convert triple channel RAM to make quad channel - is it possible?

geogan · Oct 17, 2013

I have a very expensive hand picked (at the time $561.44) set of triple channel (3 sticks) Corsair Dominator GT as below:

6Gb (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 PC-16000 2000MHz Memory Latency: 7-8-7-20

bought directly from Corsair in USA hand picked for their speed.

These are in use now in Rampage II Extreme motherboard with triple channel controller.

What I want to do is upgrade to the latest say Rampage IV motherboard with quad channel controller and KEEP these expensive sticks and buy 5 more of the same to make 8x2GB using the two quad channels.

Is this possible? I mean is there any physical difference between the types (triple/quad) or is it just the controller channels that it reads in parallel that is different?

I don't expect to get more of same latency settings and will have to run at the new cheaper ones higher latency but don't care about that now.

Pinhedd · Oct 17, 2013

There is no physical or electrical difference between single, dual, triple, and quad channel sets. However, sets with extremely tight latencies or extremely high frequencies are hand picked because they work well together whereas a random selection may not. Adding additional sticks to that pool may make those tight timings unstable.

I have two quad channel sets of 16GiB each (32GiB total) running at DDR3-2133 9-11-10-28 in my Rampage IV Extreme. Combined they cost about $300 so it may just be best to buy new kits.

geogan · Oct 17, 2013

Pinhedd :

Grand that's all I wanted to know. I can run the ones I have at slower latencies to match whatever I got but whether it's possible to find five more of same type I don't know. Probably can only buy in 2, 3 or four amount sets and may be just as expensive as a new set. Maybe I'll ask Corsair directly. The 7-8-7-20 timings do make a difference when shuffling very large datasets around which is too big to fit in CPU cache for example jog/shuttling a HD video in Premiere. Also when I had the BIOS memory settings set to auto I got I think it was 7.2 in the Windows rating for memory performance and when I set it to 7-8-7-20 in BIOS the rating went straight up to maximum 7.9!

Pinhedd · Oct 21, 2013

geogan :

Pinhedd :

Grand that's all I wanted to know. I can run the ones I have at slower latencies to match whatever I got but whether it's possible to find five more of same type I don't know. Probably can only buy in 2, 3 or four amount sets and may be just as expensive as a new set. Maybe I'll ask Corsair directly. The 7-8-7-20 timings do make a difference when shuffling very large datasets around which is too big to fit in CPU cache for example jog/shuttling a HD video in Premiere. Also when I had the BIOS memory settings set to auto I got I think it was 7.2 in the Windows rating for memory performance and when I set it to 7-8-7-20 in BIOS the rating went straight up to maximum 7.9!

Those latencies are very impressive at that speed but with a Rampage IV Extreme motherboard you'd be using a CPU with a lot more cache and a much nicer memory controller, so the latencies won't matter as much.

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Convert triple channel RAM to make quad channel - is it possible?

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