48gb of Ram?
Posted by TheCh40sMonkey@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 35 comments
I bought a pre built from Cyberpower and it only came with 1 stick of 16gb. any where i look it is near impossible to find a single stick of 16gb except FB and even then its annoying. MAIN QUESTION!!! Is it ok for me to just use 3 sticks of 16gb or is it slower than 2 with dual channel? I've built my wife a pc but i don't know the technicalities of RAM.
SomeEngineer999@reddit
Impossible to find a 16gb stick? What are you talking about?
You can even most likely find an identical single 16gb stick on ebay, but there are plenty of other places you can order one too, just look for one that is confirmed compatible with your motherboard.
jfriend99@reddit
Prebuilt Cyperpower. Who knows what oddball brand of DRAM might be in it? Very easily could be something that isn't sold to regular consumers.
SomeEngineer999@reddit
Ebay is loaded with both OEM and retail sticks from just about every brand imaginable. People upgrade and try to recoup some cost.
OP could go that route too, buy a 32GB kit and sell the 16 on ebay, some other cyberpower or similar brand user will want it.
jfriend99@reddit
Except, eBay is the last place I'm buying DRAM.
SomeEngineer999@reddit
Why? Never gotten a bad stick and I've bought well over 100. Many of them are brand new from systems that were upgraded right out of the box, and even used ones, unless someone really mishandled them, are fine.
Run a full memory diagnostic scan using BIOS or Memtest86+ if you want, if it fails, return it, costs you nothing.
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
I don't trust used ram. It's finicky and if someone's selling it I have to ask why and how old
SomeEngineer999@reddit
Already gave the reason, they upgraded just like what you're trying to do. It is often the only way you're going to get an identical matching stick.
But if you don't want to go that way, buy a 32GB kit from Crucial and sell the one you have.
jfriend99@reddit
Glad it works well for you. Not interested myself in trying to figure out what is good, what is garbage, dealing with uncertain return policies, shipping policies, etc... Just not worth the hassle or extra work for me to try to save a few bucks.
Plus, I've had sticks fail a couple years down the road so I'd rather have a well known manufacturer with a good warranty policy and a replacement process that is easier to understand. If others want to take on extra work or risk to save a few bucks, all the more power to them - not my cup of tea.
SomeEngineer999@reddit
Uncertain return policy? Any defective item that was not listed that way has a 60 day ebay guarantee, including return shipping. Click a button, print a label, send it back.
Most of the OEM brands these manufacturers use (Hynix. Elpida/Micron, even Samsung) all make good long lasting sticks.
It isn't about saving a few bucks, it is about getting matching memory that you know will work. But do as you want, just giving OP one possible option. Of course the best route is to just get a Crucial kit that is guaranteed to work and sell the 16 or use it in something else, But they may not want to pay that much.
GonstroCZ@reddit
Why do you need a 48GB though? 32GB is already an overkill for a regular user or a gamer.
farrellart@reddit
Not everyone plays those silly games. :)
GonstroCZ@reddit
?
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
The only reason 48 is an option is because it's impossible to find a single stick or I would go for only 32 but since I'm spending the money either way is 48 too unstable
GonstroCZ@reddit
It is not unstable (or at least there is a good chance it will work), but dual channel would work a bit better. So if you know you will not be going over 32GB at all, I would just keep the new 2x16GB in dual channel and sell the extra one 16GB stick.
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
I trust you with my life
GonstroCZ@reddit
Make sure you leave one slot between RAM sticks free, that is how it works in dual channel, so it should be like this:
|_|_
or like this:
_|_|
(Hope you understood what do I mean :d).
farrellart@reddit
Yep, I missed that bit, sorry. Not everyone is a regular user though.
GonstroCZ@reddit
I know and that is exactly why am I asking him to clarify it. I would say that 32GB is still a lot for most users out there.
Also I feel like every day I see here at least one post about RAM where someone is asking whether they should get 64GB because they work in Excell and have 10 chrome tabs open... so I just always want to clarify it, whether the memory is really needed or not.
Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit
Speaking of memory does it matter when streaming, recording and gaming at the same time? What's the best amount of RAM for that?
GonstroCZ@reddit
Depends on the specific needs ofc, but even there I think 32GB should not be a huge problem. 32GB is nowadays rather recommended, because you might be getting above 16GB quite often, but just a bit, not like hitting 28GB straight away, so I would say 32GB is still enough for a regular gamer and streamer.
If you are a bigger streamer which use a ton of background apps / features etc... then 64GB would not hurt probably.
Zz_GORDOX_zZ@reddit
Interesting ok
xeonon@reddit
My 20gb excel file has to always be open for my very unoptimized python script can parse it in real time. The company's entire database software relies on that integration, and thus why I require at least 48 GB of ram
/s I hope no one has ever spoke that sentence before... But seeing some posts on Reddit... I have a feeling a lot of companies have crazy stuff like this going on in IT
SwordsAndElectrons@reddit
I think they are asking because they are finding it easier to find 2x16GB kits, not because they actually want that much.
I'm not sure where they are looking or if they trying to find something really specific though. I'm not sure where OP is located if that is a factor, but I'm finding it easy enough to find individual 16GB modules.
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
If you can find any Amazon listings for me that would be great but all the single sticks I find are for laptops and cost around 60 bucks vs 2 sticks costing 90
SwordsAndElectrons@reddit
What type do you need? DDR4 or 5? Any specific speed or timings?
Is there a reason you need to buy from Amazon? Their product filtering for this kind of thing is terrible. If you really want to buy from them, I'd recommend using a different site to find the products you want. I'm not sure if this PCPartPicker link will retain the filtering, but if not then you can browse memory listings there and use their filters to set the merchant to Amazon (and the other stuff to whatever you need).
If you aren't attached to Amazon, sites like Newegg that are dedicated to selling these type of products have much better search and filtering tools. (Although you may still be better off just searching with PC Part Picker to get price comparisons and search results from multiple sellers.)
Elitefuture@reddit
32gb is not overkill anymore.
I regularly use over 16gb without trying. Programs benefit from caching things into memory and they know we have more of it now. So they use as much memory as possible to speed up their program.
A very common setup is just a game + browser open, that'll use over 16gb. Add in some random peripheral programs, drivers, and other background tasks, and you'd now benefit from 32gb over 16gb.
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
Is 48 too unstable tho. Because either way I'm ending up with 3 sticks of 16gb.
Elitefuture@reddit
Not unstable, but it is likely going to be slower for gaming.
If you're not gaming then it doesn't matter
jfriend99@reddit
If it were me, I would run a mixed set of RAM sticks and wouldn't attempt to run 3 sticks. I'd buy a new two stick set of the capacity I want and then take the existing 16GB stick out and try to sell it.
TheCh40sMonkey@reddit (OP)
Thanks
Elitefuture@reddit
I'd rather have 2 sticks at dual channel without requiring flex mode. And this guarantees that everything is on the dual channel memory.
No_Guarantee7841@reddit
Why are you hiding your system specs? For example ddr5 is a no-go with 4 dimms for the vast majority of people, you should only use 2 dimms.
Horned-Beast@reddit
You can mix ram but there are caveats. By not using matched sets especially with ddr5 you can get instability and crashes. Also keep in mind the memory will clock it self the the SLOWEST stick. If you have one stick at a higher clock speed and introduce another with worse timings and clock speed both will run at the lowest.
Generally it is much better to purchase a set at the capacity you need. Is there a reason why you need 48? A set of 32g of 2x16 is generally what is recommended.
farrellart@reddit
You can mix RAM, I have done so on some of my builds for capacity ( not performance ). Using 3 sticks instead of 4 is not ideal as you will lose the dual channel and compatibility might be an issue. If the system starts to crash you will know the RAM is the cause.
I would try to source dual channel kits from legit suppliers, ebay is too risky for hardware imho.
But in answer to the question, 48gb RAM in a 3 stick configuration should work at a cost to performance and stability.
Gooeydab420@reddit
Depends on the speeds the different sticks have. If you put one with a lower speed than the rest run at that speed regardless if the other one is faster you still get the hole 16gb of ram from the stick just at lower speeds