How much better will 1600MHZ RAM be than 1333? (I'm looking at you Tradesman1...wink wink)

bmcelvan · Oct 13, 2016

Have a Dell Optiplex 7010 at work that came with 4GB (2x2GB) 1600 MHZ RAM. I seriously needed to upgrade as my computer was being very slow.

After asking a NewEgg chat person and checking the Dell user manual (from the Dell Support site) I saw that it could handle up to 16GB so I got: 16GB (2x8GB) gSkill 1600MHZ 10-10-10-30.

After removing the 4GB and putting in the new 16GB, the motherboard detects and runs at 1333MHZ 9-9-9-24. After consulting Dell again (forums), and being shown a document that wasn't available through the Dell support website (thanks a lot Dell), it appears my machine won't accept 16GB via 2x8GB but only 4x4GB. If you want the 8GB dimm support you have to spend the extra $150 for the "next better machine." Ahhhhhhhhhhh...and since we all know Dell bios is one and done, I can't modify anything.

So...should I bother getting the 1600MHZ 4x4 RAM. Will it actually improve my machine? The 4x4 version I was looking at was 9-9-9-24.

It seems to me that this change in speed is in the potential increase of computer performance range versus the theoretical better specs...I have better benchmarks than my friends range. For example using 3600MHZ versus 3000MHZ DDR4 memory.

Not a gaming machine, used for having multiple programs open at once, outlook, excel, word, firefox, possibly 2-8 spreadsheets concurrently, R-studio with some image analysis functions, Flow-Jo if anyone here knows what that is (flow cytometry analysis software).

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

avarice · Oct 13, 2016

The memory should help in day to day - and allowing more active applications and data to be resident in memory. If you have many applications up or deal with a fair amount of data in spreadsheets or documents, it's a good thing to upgrade the memory.

Something that will really improve your overall performance would be exchanging your hard drive for a solid state. The hard drive is the slowest component in your system so improving this will speed up everything.

A typical setup would be having your boot drive on the SSD and a data drive on the side. However depending on how much you use, and with the recent drop in prices - you could get single terabyte drive and simply replace it entirely.

Give it some thought.

bmcelvan · Oct 13, 2016

avarice :

I have thought about that a lot (SSD) but trying to find a way to justify that purchase is hard. I can justify the RAM as I literally just got an error from R-Studio not being able to complete a computation due to lack of RAM.

It's not my credit card, lol!!

In regards to the RAM, it's not a matter of whether to upgrade it, I already have. It's a matter of whether I should switch out the currently upgraded RAM I have as it will only read at 1333MHZ on my system to something that will read at the full 1600MHZ.

Will that extra 267MHZ really make a difference (if the cycle times are close-->10/1600=625 milliseconds versus 9/1333=675milliseconds)?

Thanks for the response avarice.

Tradesman1 · Oct 13, 2016

The specs for the prebuilt indicat it's a Q77 chipset and being a prebuilt can take 16GB but in a 4x4GB config. It's an abbreviated version of the Z77 and H77, both of which would indeed take 8GB sticks. What CPU does your rig have?

bmcelvan · Oct 13, 2016

Tradesman1 :

i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz

I have already received and installed (yesterday am) the 2 8GB sticks and they seem to be working stably and properly albeit at a slower speed (1333) than they are listed as and the mobo can take (1600).

Do you think there would be any noticeable difference in performance between the current 16GB (2x8GB 1333 at CL9) and what I'd hoped to get 16GB(1600 at either CL9 or CL10 and in this case will be 4x4GB). Or is it really just a waste of time to take (already working) RAM out of the computer, RMA and ship it back to NewEgg becasue the potential performance increase is very small, like 2% or something?

Thanks

Ben

Tradesman1 · Oct 13, 2016

1600 will provide a slight performance increase - primarily when working with large data sets, memory intensive apps and when multi-tasking. Not overly noticeable, but there, would look at 1600/9 DRAM, prob the Ripjaws X or Sniper lines from GSkill, in 4x4GB

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How much better will 1600MHZ RAM be than 1333? (I'm looking at you Tradesman1...wink wink)

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