Will 6GB of RAM work in a P55 system?

[andrewa]

Allow me to explain the slightly bonkers title. I'm building a new P55 machine, and while 8GB of RAM is just outside of my budget, I've determined that 4GB of RAM won't really be enough either (I do pretty heavy photo editing, and will be running Win 7 x64).

So I'm wondering if I can combine a 2x2GB kit with a 2x1GB kit for a total of 6GB of RAM.

Specially, they would be Crucial DDR3 1333 CAS9 1.5V kits (links here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewPr...crucial_DDR3_1333_1.5v-_-20-148-194-_-Product and http://www.newegg.com/Product/NewPr...crucial_DDR3_1333_1.5v-_-20-148-262-_-Product), with a Gigabyte P55M-UD2 motherboard and a Core i7 860 proc.

My questions are:

1. Will this work at all?
2. Will the memory still run at full duel-channel mode?
3. Will this configuration incur any other performance or stability issues?

Thanks!

 

[boonality]

I think you'd be better off with a 6GB kit.

 

[GhislainG]

My questions are:

1. Will this work at all?
2. Will the memory still run at full duel-channel mode?
3. Will this configuration incur any other performance or stability issues?

Thanks!

1. Yes
2. Yes. However a triple channel kit wouldn't.
3. Since they have the same specs, you shouldn't have problems.

I suggest that you spend the extra $50 and buy 2 identical kits. It's always better to use identical modules, but it isn't an absolute requirement.

 

[rodney_ws]

Just get 4 GB and upgrade to 8 GB down the road... or just take the jump and get 8 GB now. If 6 GB is truly the right amount of RAM for you NOW... then a little ways down the road you'll need more... and you'll have used all 4 slots. You're trying to go against the flow on this one bro. Don't.

 

[vvhocare5]

I have the same mindset as Rodney. Nothing worse than buying something that you pull out in a few months and isnt reuseable. Low density memry has almost no use at all. Win 7 x64 will use all of that 4G of memory unlike the 32 bit version. Various benchmarks on this site also show that the fastest memory doesnt deliver huge performance gains either. So if 8G is what you need, trade away a little speed and get the slower RAM to get to 8G.

You can use different RAM in the 2 pairs of slots without impact or stability issues. Its always best to keep them similar to reduce the number of issues you have to deal with in case something does goes wrong. The memory must be the same within the slot pairs, the 2 Slot 0's or A's, etc.

One side effect is when populating the second bank, the memory almost always slows down. This is because of the extra load, they change the Command rate from 1T to 2T. You can see this in CPUz (not all do it but most do). Thats also why I said get the slower RAM.