Time to Upgrade (3D, ArchViz, simulation, etc.)

[teoalmonte]

Assuming with cards you meam ram modules, It will be an issue if you mix size inside a triplet.
You can’t have three solts with 4GB, and the other three with mixed sizes.
You can decouple across channels (triplets for your chipset), but not within the triplet.

Worst that can happen is you will not get even to POST in the boot. You won’t be doing any physical damage to anything though.

Alright, yeah I meant modules. I had 3x1gb inside- i removed one and then i bought two packs of modules each came with 2x4gb. So with the 1gb removed i placed the 4x4gb cards in the empty slots. My computer booted up okay but if you recommend I not mess around with the triplets. Should I
A:remove the 1gb modules and just place the 2 2x4gb (so 4x4gb in total) modules I have?
B:Return the 2x4gb and 2x4gb and buy a 4x4gb or 6x4gb pack instead (I just ask because i don’t know if it makes a difference if the come in the space pack or not)
C:something else

@Srek thanks i’ll most likely get that one then and yeah I was going to do option 3 but they only sold 2x4gb not a 3x4gb so i bought two of the 2x4gb instead… i hope that’s okay and won’t do anything wrong to my computer. (A buddy of mine works at bestbuy so he got me like 50% off and i got the PNY 2x4gb - 2 packs)

@imashination …yeah i know what you mean I looked at my computer cause i havent been using it for 3+yrs since i’ve been traveling and away in college and when i saw 3gb i was like wtf did i seriously buy this ram with the computer…haha
and yes 24gb is my max- currently have 18gb in total- don’t know if that’s okay but i’m a noob. and i might get the 750i or 760 depending on how i am feeling performance vs price wise.

Okay i’ll look at the bios, i’m never done overclocking before but i will give it a try hopefully nothing goes wrong.

and yes i was pretty dumb (still am a bit when it comes to cpuparts haha), I was like 15/16 and just wanted something cool and i bought into it and got an alienware. But yeah i know to never do that again.
-oh and thanks for the pm, helpful too

edit: this is what im getting for ram -_- and if it says 3.20ghz what am i actually using then? and how high can it go if i overlock it… (/facepalm i know haha ) cpuz is showing 18gb though and detects all the modules

[Srek]

@Srek thanks i’ll most likely get that one then and yeah I was going to do option 3 but they only sold 2x4gb not a 3x4gb so i bought two of the 2x4gb instead… i hope that’s okay and won’t do anything wrong to my computer. (A buddy of mine works at bestbuy so he got me like 50% off and i got the PNY 2x4gb - 2 packs)

at 50% discount get another pair of two 4GB sticks and just stick all six in the system, provided of course the packages you get hold identical module types.
Running in twin, instead of triplet, configuration will very likely work, but the memory performance will be reduced. I had a system like yours a while ago and mine wasn’t stable with twin configurations.

[teoalmonte]

at 50% discount get another pair of two 4GB sticks and just stick all six in the system, provided of course the packages you get hold identical module types.
Running in twin, instead of triplet, configuration will very likely work, but the memory performance will be reduced. I had a system like yours a while ago and mine wasn’t stable with twin configurations.

oh… and how exactly unstable? should i just return the modules and buy them online that are 3x4gb and 3x4gb then? if the two are not as good and stable

edit: this is my bios and I’m trying to figure out why the ram isn’t being used and how to overclock since it was recommended.




edit: i removed th 2gb (2x1gb) i think it’s better now

[imashination]

Its likely that youll need to be careful which slots the memory sticks are in. The triple channel motherboards were often picky about what slots were used. If you pair up the wrong slots then some memory will be seen, but unusable, thats why removing the older 1 gig sticks nets you more ram.

Honestly, if it runs fine, Id stick with the ram you have for a bit and see how you get on. 14 gigs is a perfectly good amount which shouldnt limit you much.

Overclocking on that cpu is just a question of bumping up the bclk value, the higher it goes, the faster it runs. Nudge it up 5-10 to begin with and see how stable it is for a few days, if its all fine then nudge it up again, youll find the point where it starts crashing.

[teoalmonte]

Its likely that youll need to be careful which slots the memory sticks are in. The triple channel motherboards were often picky about what slots were used. If you pair up the wrong slots then some memory will be seen, but unusable, thats why removing the older 1 gig sticks nets you more ram.

Honestly, if it runs fine, Id stick with the ram you have for a bit and see how you get on. 14 gigs is a perfectly good amount which shouldnt limit you much.

Overclocking on that cpu is just a question of bumping up the bclk value, the higher it goes, the faster it runs. Nudge it up 5-10 to begin with and see how stable it is for a few days, if its all fine then nudge it up again, youll find the point where it starts crashing.

yeah i am going to stick with the 4x4gb for now, thanks. it seems to be working fine and maybe in the future if i need it ill see to upgrade with two more slots. Also for nudging the cpu bclk is there a good way to check performance? i’ll probably only add 10 today.

and i also bought a new 750ti gpuboost sc video card. I should remove the old 250 right?

[imashination]

stick the old 250 in a draw for an emergency one day, its of no use in your computer.

Personally I’d use cinebench to test the speed. Its a relevant test which gives you a good idea about real-world gains. Synthetic tests can be too heavily swayed by ram speed and caches.

[teoalmonte]

stick the old 250 in a draw for an emergency one day, its of no use in your computer.

Personally I’d use cinebench to test the speed. Its a relevant test which gives you a good idea about real-world gains. Synthetic tests can be too heavily swayed by ram speed and caches.

Yeah the new 750 and the gigs have been working just fine. Huge improvement overall.

I have also been using Cinebench to measure my performance and have been getting around 110fps and 960cb. A lot faster then my original setup and a lot faster then what i would have without the overclock. So far i have brought it up to 170 blck i believe and it is 4.10ghz. It is stable but i may try and continue to bump it till it starts to crash.

thanks for your help and everyone elses help. I am always open to new comments regarding my rig or any improvements that can be made.

[ThE_JacO]

Yeah the new 750 and the gigs have been working just fine. Huge improvement overall.

I have also been using Cinebench to measure my performance and have been getting around 110fps and 960cb. A lot faster then my original setup and a lot faster then what i would have without the overclock. So far i have brought it up to 170 blck i believe and it is 4.10ghz. It is stable but i may try and continue to bump it till it starts to crash.

thanks for your help and everyone elses help. I am always open to new comments regarding my rig or any improvements that can be made.

Enjoy your newly found speed in peace with no hardware lust until at least Q1 next year now
It’ll do you good. When the DDR4 and host equipped GPUs will have settled in price, then it might be a good moment to look at hardware again, until then squeeze the current one you have, it’s far from underpowered and you got pretty good bang for buck out of this pass IMO.

[imashination]

Sounds great, that should keep you going for a few years. Just keep an eye on the cpu temperatures to start with and make sure your heatsink metal fins are nice and clean as your system will be putting out more heat now. ‘Realtemp’ is a simple free monitor.