Mixing 1600(oc) and 1333?

[cutcopypaste]

My motherboard supports up to 1600, but it's 1600 (oc) which i understand means that if I haven't messed with anything it's running at 1333 anyway. The RAM I have in there right now is 1600.
I'm thinking of buying more RAM, and I'm sort of not sure if I should get 1333 or 1600 in this situation? My inclination is that the only way it would really matter is if I was putting this RAM in another board that did support 1600 or if I decided to overclock.

thoughts?

 

[WyomingKnott]

Thou hast openethed the proverbial can of worms.

I say, if it's running at 1333 mix the memory. Others will say use all identical memory modules to avoid deadly issues.

Mixed modules will run at the lowest speed, highest latency, and highest voltages of any of the modules. Also, if this is a Sandy Bridge rig you need memory that will run at the new lower voltage.

Unless there's a huge price diff, buy more sticks of what you already have.

 

[cutcopypaste]

thanks for the advice.. what else is in the can of worms do you think? wishing now i'd just bought 1333 originally of course. silly boy.

it's no sandy bridge just an amd 1055t on an msi 870a-g54. put it together in the summer and of course now ram is half the price so am obviously tempted to upgrade

i can grab 8gb of 1600 for $104 CAD or of 1333 for $82.99.. soo a solid twenny difference

 

[tik]

This $20 will give you a fortune, pay for it.

 

[cutcopypaste]

This $20 will give you a fortune, pay for it.

could you please elaborate on why and how?

is having 2x4gb + 2x2GB 1600 RAM all running at 1333 going to perform significantly differently than 2x4gb of 1333 + 2x2 gb of 1600 running at 1333? or do you suggest I overclock the thing, or are you suggesting the $20 as 'future proofing' for if/when I wind up with another motherboard. I don't mean to challenge your advice, I'm just curious as to what benefits/drawbacks I need to weigh here.

Thinking about it.. that extra 4gb is not going to be that much of a big deal probably.. as I imagine 2x4 should be able to take care of pretty much everything on here at least for now

 

[jsc]

Bottom line:
Buying more of the same RAM will work. Buying different RAM will probably work, hopefully without too much tinkering.

I know what I'd do ...

 

[Toxxyc]

I'd buy the same RAM if I had no mentioning of going OC. If you are sure that you are going to OC, then you can OC the 1333MHz RAM to 1600MHz (not really recommended), and then both sets will run at 1600MHz, making you stress the 1333MHz chips more but letting the 1600MHz chips run like they should.

It's a matter of personal choice right about now, I would go for the 1600MHz RAM (as I like to OC a little), and then just OC the 1333MHz to 1600MHz and use until it pops. Then I'd get another set of 1600MHz chips to replace the broken 1333MHz (reference) chips. Easy pickings.

 

[tik]

Several reasons. First, now you have 1600 mhz ones, I myself would feel silly to buy a less performance components. Then suppose you wanna upgrade CPU or motherboard (believe me this will happend sooner or later), you will find out how you feel having drawback components. Worse is that your mobo die tomorrow (why mobo, not the CPU? Well from my experience CPU live longer than mobo. Unless you overclock it. Another reason, proably mobo contain several component and perform several function than the cpu.), your new mobo will allow or require a better memory than the one you got now.

I will give more reason as soon as it come out of my mind.

My 1st rule, never buy a less performance one than I got. I did it before, several times. Everytime, I wanna bump my head to the floor.

 

[cutcopypaste]

cool thanks for the answers and opinions. i'm probably going to hold off for a bit.. i thiiink in general it does make more sense to throw and extra $20 down on the higher speed RAM

 

[cutcopypaste]

thanks for the detailed response.. i'm not totally sure what course of action you're recommending based on my situation, though.
right now i don't have any overclocked RAM afaik because I haven't overclocked anything, I am using 2x2GB 1600 RAM that is underclocked to 1333 with this motherboard

Curious to see what people would recommend with it all laid out.. bc I'm not sure I was clear enough about what exactly is in there/might be in there.

a) keep my 1600 2x2 GB that's running (as far as I understand it) at 1333 and add 2x4 GB 1600 RAm (all will be running at 1333) - ~$104 for total 12 GB RAM
b) keep my 1600 2x2 GB running at 1333 and add 2x4 GB 1333 ram - $85 for a total of 12 GB RAM
c) get the 2x4 GB 1600 and ditch my old RAM - $104 for total 8 GB -whatever I can sell my current Ram for is $30 reasonable?
d) get the 2x4 GB 1333 and ditch my old RAM - $85 for total 8 GB -whatever I can sell my current Ram for
e) just get another copy of the same RAM I already have - $50 for total 8 GB
f) as a, but try and overclock all the RAM to get it to run at 1600.
g) other

all the ram I've been looking at has cas latency of 9. the cas latency 7 stuff may be awesome but it's kinda feeling above my means

 

[cutcopypaste]

posted in wrong thread, I'm having technical difficulties with my log-in.
moderators are aware of it.
my bad..

oh hehe.
but it did make me wonder out of my options which would count as mismatching ram..