TR Forums

Hi, I'd like to hear some help and suggestions from fellow TR members.

I have an i5-3570K (currently overclocked to 4.5GHz), an MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard and 8GB or Corsair Vengeance LP RAM (2x4GB 1600MHz). I have ordered 2 more sticks of the same memory (2x4GB) to a total of 16GB, it's on its way.

First of all, I'm guessing that most people would probably say "why not just buy 2x8GB kit?" or "you will have to increase CPU voltage with more RAM if you want to keep the same clock speed", but I have chosen to do it this way and I would appreciate it if fellow posters would respect my choice.

Now, my question is: should I set the clock speed and voltage of the CPU to the default settings before adding more RAM or can I just keep it and made changes after installing the sticks? Are there any potentially dangerous effect to my hardware if I choose to do the former?

Thanks.

Since you have a K series CPU, just set your multiplier and let the motherboard decide on the voltages.

This is what I usually do, then step down the voltage in small increments to find the lowest voltages, and highest frequencies at which i'm stable. Modern hardware is pretty smart and you aren't likely to damage anything unless you're seriously over-volting it.

I think you misunderstood my question. What I wanted to know is, do I have to disable CPU overlocking (back to default speed/voltage) before adding more RAM?

EzioAs wrote:

What I wanted to know is, do I have to disable CPU overlocking (back to default speed/voltage) before adding more RAM?

Nope, they are independent. You can add ram or set Memory frequency/timings, it won't affect your current CPU frequency.

That's good to hear. To be honest, I could've just set the BIOS to the default settings, add RAM and overclock afterwards but if there's no need for it, I'm glad.

Thank you.

EzioAs wrote:

That's good to hear. To be honest, I could've just set the BIOS to the default settings, add RAM and overclock afterwards but if there's no need for it, I'm glad.

Thank you.

Are you overclocking RAM ??? IMO if you are using RAM with 1600 MHZ speed there is no need to push it any further. The performance gain is not worth it.

No, I did not overclock the RAM. Just the CPU.

Adding ram might make the CPU overclock unstable, you won't know until you try it. You won't break anything by leaving the CPU overclocked though, worst case is that it won't boot until you take the sticks out or reduce the overclock. Personally I'd take the CPU back to stock, put the sticks in, verify basic functionality and then put in a Memtest86+ USB stick and leave that running for the night. If your new RAM is messed up, you'll want to try and find out ASAP. After you verify that it's good, restore your OC and don't worry about it.

That's a pretty helpful recommendation. I was hoping to skip it, yet it might be the best practice though slightly cumbersome. Well, I guess I'll be taking your advice. Thanks a lot.

When I went from 2x4GB corsair vengence 1600mhz 9,9,9,24 1t memory to 2x8GB PNY ZLR8 1600mhz 9,9,9,27 2t , Since the sticks were higher density I did have to increase the CPU voltage but it was the PLL voltage I think, but not the direct CPU voltage, honestly I cannot recall at 5AM. But I have since went to 9,9,9,24 1t on the higher density PNY sticks and it is hunky dory. The 8gb/2x4gb kit made its way into my HTPC so it now has 12gb instead of 4 gb and they are not matching ram. The Vengence 1600mhz mem Auto matched the 1333 memory that was already installed.

I love having 16gb over 8gb...you will notice your system will start using more memory then when it only had 8gb this is normal and just the OS storing stuff it can access Quickly from the memory. The longer the system is on the more ram will get used. I reboot about every 4 days sometimes longer but if I go to the Task Manager and I am using around 10GB of memory I usually reboot if it needs to be or not:) But I have been running my 2600k that can 24/7 for at least 4 years, possibly 5 since I did get it when they were just released but my memory is failing.

Your best bet is to install the Additional sticks of matching memory, Double check the timings are identical before installing...just because it seems like the same memory the SKU could be 1 digit different and the timings could be 1 digit off but it is unlikely.
On the 1st boot up with new ram I would pop into the bios and check that the timings all match and are correct and use the XMP profile that you probably already are using. then fire up the OS...you should be good but you might have to add voltage somewhere with all 4 slots full. Hopefully not.

Thanks for that tip, Vargis.

For the timings, if it were, as you said, 1 digit different, would that cause the system to become unstable or something?

I ordered the kit with the same timings though, but I guess there's still a chance what I get could be slightly different.

Anything is possible with Computers....and I have read using all 4 ram slots can cause some instability since the memory controller is now managing 4 slots instead of 2 slot maxing it out.

Be sure to download Sisoft Sandra light and do a before and after test of you memory bandwidth. My 2600k at 4500mhz is between 20 and 21GB a sec.

Wish I had the money and the capability to hold 4 16gb sticks so I could do a 48gb Ramdisk something like this. This makes me wish motherboards gave you the option of allowing power to the ram when you shut down so system RAM could hold on to its memory...even rechargeable batteries on each ram stick would work I would think, Look at this performance..not even 4 of the best SSD's in raid could come close. http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews ... onds-flat/

I do not know why there are not any special ram kits that could use 2 of your ram slots with a ribbon cable connecting them for a special Ram Drive with a battery backup of some kind.
So far the only PCI or PCIE ran disk cards with battery backup is a Gigabyte PCI card with a 4gb limit but hold 4 sticks of ram. It is not even PCIE and PCI just does not have the bandwidth of the connection speed regular MB ram slots have.

I would love a 6 or 8 core intel E system that could hold 128gb of system memory and use 32 for regular ram use and the rest for a big fat RAMDISK As you can see the 2 cups of coffee has kicked in.

I don't even need to click the link to see how fast RAMdisk are. It's RAM, go figure.

Anyway, thanks for the help. Get some sleep, man.

If all your sticks are matched just whack it on XMP and be done with it. If not, you'll have to run at the timings of the loosest pair of DIMMs but either way, XMP should cover that on a half-decent board regardless.