Installing 64 gig of of ram, should I go with 4 stick or 8 stick setup?

Joshua Gilbreath

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Jun 13, 2013
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I am looking to build a new gaming / workstation PC shortly after Intel drops the new Skylake processors and am planning on installing 64 gig of RAM to the setup.

Is there a consensus as to either a 4 module RAM setup or a 8 module setup is optimal?

I would like the ability to expand the workstation with another 64 gigs potentially, but that would not happen for a while.

I am trying to decide between these two sets.

I don't plan on overclocking, never have been completely comfortable tweaking all of the settings. The greatest extent that I would do this would be to use the motherboards "one-click" overclocking utility.

I like the idea of not having as many modules to worry about. Minimizing the potential for hardware failure is always good in my book.

What does everyone think, 4 module setup of 8 modules setup?

 

Rapajez

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I could be wrong, but I believe the Z170 chipset (used for Skylake) will be limited to 4 sticks of dual-channel RAM.

There's always the "-E" (e.g., Haswell-E) enthusiast chips that follow a 3-6 months behind the mainstream CPUs, if they stick to the release model, but even those tend to support quad-channel only, and I don't see an advantage to buying 8 sticks.

Even if they support 128GB+, you might as well go with 4 sticks, so you have the option to upgrade.
 

Joshua Gilbreath

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Interesting, thank you for the insight.

My "Wish List" build is currently:

Motherboard

RAM

Skylake CPU

Would this motherboard / RAM combo would allow for 64 gig operating RAM and run the new Skylake processor?

I think that I am still a bit confused in regards to the socket designation. Does a socket 1151 and socket 2011 run on the same board, or are they two physically different CPU sockets?

Thank you!


 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
The X99 Sabertooth is a 2011 v3 socket mobo that supports 64 GB and it will not be compatible with the initial Skylake CPU offerings which will be the Z170 chipset running on socket 1151. It will prob be 6 months to a year down the road before Skylake will enter into the 2011 socket with an E model
 

Joshua Gilbreath

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Okay, gotcha. Thank you for the explanation. I think I understand the difference now.

Thank you!