DDR4 RAM, 4 DIMMS or only 2?

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MegaBuns516

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Jul 23, 2017
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Alrighty I'll just jump right into it. I'm planning on upgrading to faster DDR4 RAM, and I figured I would just go with the Trident Z RGB RAM clocked at 3200. Since I am doing a minor overclock on my CPU, I was wondering if it would be better in any way to go with 2 DIMMS over 4, or if it just doesn't matter.

Also I couldn't find this anywhere so I guess I'll ask here too, does the TridentZ RAM fit in the ASUS ROG Z370-E gaming with the Kraken X62 or will it be obstructed? Let me know your thoughts.

(Also let me know if you think 4 DIMMS of TridentZ looks cooler than 2, or if they're equally cool :p)
 
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As far as performance goes, the number of populated DIMM slots is not relevant. What is relevant is the number of ranks...
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AniChatt

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2 vs 4 does not matters as it will be using 2 channels in z370. If your platform is capable for using 4 channel memory then it can individually take advantage of each 4 dimms. So 2 vs. 4 no issue. Most of the users uses 4 dimms just to populate all empty slots and it looks complete. Aesthetically 4 RGB trident z will look cooler than 2. But buy a 4 dimm kit as it is recommended by the manufacturer to use 4 sticks that comes in a kit do not mix 2 different 2x2kit. But I have mixed for intel as well as ryzen which works.

Lastly it seems you have plenty of money and you are searching for opportunities to spend but it may add very very minor performance benefit. Even in my ryzen now I realize that I have wasted money on 3200 flarex rather I would buy a 1600 + 2400 ram + 1080ti rather than 1600x + 3200 ram + 1080 for almost similar price
 
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MegaBuns516

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Alrighty, I think I'll just fill in all 4 DIMMs. Also do you by any chance happen to know the answer to the second part of my question? I know it's a long shot but I figured I'd ask anyways.
 
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AniChatt

AniChatt

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Not getting any clear ans anywhere if it will hinder the 4th dimm slot or not. I think it will not say for 99%. If it hinders, you can rotate the block 90 degree and then it will work just fine. However you can still customize nzxt logo appearance just disable it and enable the ring animation rgb. So you are good to go.
 
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Pinhedd

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As far as performance goes, the number of populated DIMM slots is not relevant. What is relevant is the number of ranks installed on each channel. A DIMM can contain 1, 2, 4, or 8 ranks of memory. 4 and 8 rank DIMMs are exclusive to enterprise servers, but consumer DIMMs are available in 1 and 2 rank configurations.

Consumer motherboards are limited to 4 ranks per memory channel, or two ranks per DIMM slot. Installing more than 4 ranks per channel requires that the memory be registered or buffered.

An 8GiB DIMM may be constructed from a single rank of 8 gigabit SDRAM chips, or it may be constructed from two ranks of 4 gigabit SDRAM chips. For a given capacity (eg, 8 gigabytes) more ranks is preferable and will offer better performance. The reasons for this are more technical than I care to get into right now but I will elaborate if requested.

Electrically, there is no difference between a pair of single rank 8 gigabyte DIMMs providing a total capacity of 16 gigabytes, and a single DIMM with two 8 gigabyte ranks providing a total capacity of 16 gigabytes. If the data rate and timings are exactly the same, performance will be exactly the same. However, the latter solution populates only a single DIMM slot.

This is one of the reasons why I really, really hate "memory benchmarks". There are only three SDRAM manufacturing companies, Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix and their products all conform to the same JEDEC specification. Everyone else is an assembly company that slaps a different heat spreader on it and tweak the timings in XMP profiles.

Anyway. If you want the option to install more memory down the road, install a single dual-rank DIMM in each channel. You can then install a second dual-rank DIMM in each channel at a later time The manufacturer's data sheet should tell if you if it's a single or dual rank configuration. If it's not documented, look closely at the DIMM itself. The most common configuration for dual-rank DIMMs is 8 SDRAM chips on each side of the board.
 
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