Dual Channel Ram in Quad Channel Motherboard.

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AAli Sher

AAli Sher

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I have a MSI X99S Gaming 7 motherboard (It supports Quad Channel Ram) and I need to get DDR4 memory for it. I want to know what difference will it make if the memory sticks are dual channel specified like G.Skill Ripjaw V 2800mhz. Or will I gain sagnificant performance with Quad channel specified memory sticks like G.Skill Ripjaw IV or Corsair Vengeance LPX? In either case I will be going with 16gb (4*4) config.
 
Solution
Tradesman1
While both are aimed at the Z170, they are perfectly fine in X99 also, the RJs 4 and V are basically followups (in DDR4 to the Ripjaws X and Z lines where the X was aimed at 1155 and the Z at the origianl 2011 socket. The Trident Z are followers of the Trident X as their upper line
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Rookie_MIB

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What you need to get is a kit which is 4 sticks of RAM guaranteed to work together, and that won't matter if it's 'dual channel' or 'quad channel' since you could have a dual channel system with 4 RAM slots. Generally it just means you can't go buy two 2xXGB kits, you need one 4xXGB setup as those are all tested to work together properly.

Putting two 2xXGB kits together, even if the same kind, might not work right. (voltages change when you put more ram in a system and that can muck the with the timings and such).

As for speed, generally you want the highest MHZ with the lowest CAS at the most affordable price point you can find. Easiest way to rate it all is to:

MHZ / PRICE = RATING. Then buy according to your price range.
 
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AAli Sher

AAli Sher

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Ok I got what you are saying but I'm still confused a little. X99 boards are Quad channel certified. They have 8 memory slots in total, which means that you will be running quad channel only if you utilize all the slots 8xXGB and dual channel if you put memory sticks in only 4 of them as in 4xXGB config, am I right?
 
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Rookie_MIB

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Nope - not quite.

The motherboard manual will tell you exactly which slots to put the ram into to enable quad channel, but in order for you to run quad channel, you will need to put in a minimum of 4 sticks.

So - if you put the 4 sticks in the wrong slots, it will jump down to dual channel. According to your motherboard manual, you will need to populate (in a 4 stick ram setup) DIMM1,3,5,7. Remember that the dimm slots are in order:

IO PANEL | 1,2,3,4 CPU 8,7,6,5

Obviously if you want to run more ram - it would have to be an 8 stick kit, and you would poplulate all 8 slots.
 
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AAli Sher

AAli Sher

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Thanks mate, got it now. So just to be safe, I should go with a 4 stick kit like G.Skill Ripjaws 4 or Corsair Vengeance LPX instead of 2 separate 2 stick kits like G.Skill Ripjaws V?
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Yes, there's no guarantees when mixing set, even of the same exact model. So will want a 4 stick set, that way it's guaranteed, of testing I've done I generally find Gskill to be a little stroonger (more OC headroom) than Corsair. For your mobo, GSkill has also released the new Ripjaws V line of DRAM and their top of the line Trident Z (just got the 32GB set of Tri Z in 3200, for a Skylake build, great sticks ;) )
 
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Rookie_MIB

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Exactly. For quad channel - get a 4 stick kit. Tradesman1 mentioned some kits that he has personal experience with so assuming it's within your budget...
 
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AAli Sher

AAli Sher

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Ripjaws V and Trident Z both are meant to be run on Z170.
 
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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While both are aimed at the Z170, they are perfectly fine in X99 also, the RJs 4 and V are basically followups (in DDR4 to the Ripjaws X and Z lines where the X was aimed at 1155 and the Z at the origianl 2011 socket. The Trident Z are followers of the Trident X as their upper line
 
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Solution
AAli Sher

AAli Sher

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Sep 14, 2015
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Thank you. That was helpful. I really dig the design of Ripjaws V and Trident Z but I'm not sure if I will be able to get a 4 stick kit of Ripjaws V where I live. I guess I will wait for them or go with Corsair Vengeance LPX
 
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