Should I upgrade my RAM?

[jordan1794]

Hello all!
When I built my computer a few months back I did crazy research, but figured RAM was simple and din't bother, I just grabbed the best looking 2133 Mhz RAM at the best price I saw.

My RAM is:
G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133

The timings are:
11-13-13-31

From what I've read, those timings aren't fantastic, I'm just wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade?
Price isn't really an issue,RAM is relatively cheap compared to other computer parts.


My wife's computer is aging, so my chips would probably go to hers (She is currently running 6 sticks of 2 GB 2133 Mhz RAM)

 

[[Ion]]

I'd argue why bother? Your have lots of pretty fast memory. And, based on your system specs, the performance boost would be minimal. The AMD APUs (and to a lesser extend the Intel iGPUs) love super-fast memory, but otherwise memory speed is largely irrelevant.
And if your wife already has 12GB why does it need to be replaced?

 

[jordan1794]

Her computer is aging quite a bit, going on 7-8 years now
(Was my computer for the last 4 years, and was my brothers for the 3 years prior to that)
I recently replaced my Phanteks with a LEPA and gave her the Phanteks so that I could overclock her i7 920 to 3 Ghz.
She was getting ton of BSs and we traced it to her graphics card (a radeon HD 5850) and replaced it with a GTX 6....650 I think? I'd have to check.
That stopped the BSs for a bit, but she still gets them from time to time...I'm thinking it's her RAM, as it would be the next most likely thing. I ran windows built in memory tester and it passed, but I need to run Memtest86+ on hers and see if it passes that.

Chances are that I'm going to buy more RAM for her anyways, so if I would see any kind of performance increase on my system it would make more sense for me to buy better RAM and give her my current RAM, as it's far superior to what she is running.
But, if there are no, or only marginal gains to be had, I'm better off just buying her some regular RAM and leaving mine alone.

Kinda trying to refresh her whole system one piece at a time lol.
Hoping the BSs aren't coming from a failing MOBO part, or god forbid the processor(however I think the processor is good, it handled the 3.0 Ghz perfectly fine, didn't even need a voltage increase)

 

[RCoon]

Unless your wife is running an APU (judging by the GTX 650 I'd guess not), RAM speed is largely irrelevant for day-to-day and gaming tasks. Speed and tight timings are only ever useful for APU performance and for benchmarking. Quite frankly I wouldn't waste the money and just get a CAS9 1866mhz kit. I say this as a 2133CAS10 owner, who finds the whole thing totally pointless. Faster RAM equates to ~1% PC performance improvement, it's just not worth it.

I guess it would be nice to get down from 6 x 2GB sticks at least, maybe roll with 3 x 4GB or 3 x 8GB @ 1866CAS9 or something. Less stress on the IMC.

 

[micropage7]

Her computer is aging quite a bit, going on 7-8 years now

i guess than ram i think you may think of new pc for replacing it, ram wont affect much

 

[jordan1794]

i guess than ram i think you may think of new pc for replacing it, ram wont affect much

Her and I are both in school, I just spent a little over $2,000 on this computer(got $5,000 back from taxes) and I want to try to make hers last until I have a job again. I quit working in December so that I could hurry up and get my degree done.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Her and I are both in school, I just spent a little over $2,000 on this computer(got $5,000 back from taxes) and I want to try to make hers last until I have a job again. I quit working in December so that I could hurry up and get my degree done.

There's actually nothing wrong with her computer. Aging, ever since the Core Inside era has meant very little. If you're not highly overclocking parts or providing ridiculous voltage, as well as having decent airflow and cooling, there's no reason that her "aging" system can't still perform great!

I daresay, under normal circumstances, the things that are most likely to need replacing at some point are fans and HDD's. Better to save the money for those eventualities. If her RAM is failing, then sure, replace that, but no reason to replace yours at all.

 

[micropage7]

Her and I are both in school, I just spent a little over $2,000 on this computer(got $5,000 back from taxes) and I want to try to make hers last until I have a job again. I quit working in December so that I could hurry up and get my degree done.

i think you better save the money than upgrading the ram since it wont affect much
maybe you could do some cleaning the apps or optimizing the pc so it could perform better than spending for buying new ram

 

[jsfitz54]

I guess it would be nice to get down from 6 x 2GB sticks at least, maybe roll with 3 x 4GB or 3 x 8GB @ 1866CAS9 or something. Less stress on the IMC.

I believe that X58 system would only support 3x4GB (4GB max per slot) . I have never seen 3x8GB on X58. X58 supported 24GB max.


SAVE YOUR MONEY.

 

[jordan1794]

@micropage7 Both PC's perform flawlessly for programs and games(although obviously she can't max all settings anymore), hers is just having the BSs.
Thanks to @jsfitz54 for the RAM limitation warning, I definitely didn't even think about that!
Would have been an annoying and expensive lesson to learn...

Thanks to all that contributed, I guess I'll go ahead and run Memtest86+ and even if it passes I might go ahead and replace the RAM and opt with 3x4GB sticks.

 

[jordan1794]

Wow! Holy crap...She started getting errors about 2 minutes into Memtest86+. It started with 1 error, then 2 errors, then errors just started scrolling!
Needless to say, I'm now in the market for replacement RAM.

Issue is, the i7 920 supports 3 channel RAM, should I really strive to get 3 or 6 chips, or will 2 or 4 chips work just as well?
Reason being, I cannot locate any good 2133 Mhz RAM in 2 GB, OR 4 GB sticks. Only ones I do find are 4 GB and come in packs of 2, meaning I need to go with 3 sets, giving me 24 GB of RAM, which is far more than needed...and also more money than I would like to spend.

 

[jsfitz54]

You are going to have to run memtest86+ with one stick at a time to isolate which stick is bad. I find that one pass yields errors on memory that is really bad. Sometimes you need more passes but to shortcut the issue, do each stick solo. Disconnect HD's for this.

X58 designed for triple channel but it will run in dual channel as well. I would aim for 3 channels, 3x4GB, you won't need any more than that. If you have 3 good ram sticks for 3x2GB then just run that, most likely you won't need more for daily use.

Running 2133 in all 6 channels is (near) impossible, X58 platform topped out at max ram OC of 2000Mhz. I run 2133 in 3x4GB mode but you have to buy 2 kits (4 sticks) or buy a single.
I also have a 6 core chip. You may have issues with the i7 920. You can also underclock your current sticks. You might be having stability issues as it might not be setup correctly???

My system runs better with only 3 slots filled. I had 6x2GB of 2000Mhz and switched.

You will never be able to run all 6 channels maxed out (24GB) at 2133. You are way over reaching.

 

[jordan1794]

Actually I need to do some checking then, I overclocked her cpu with base clock as the 920 isn't unlocked and doing so actually put the RAM at around 2300-2400 Mhz. Oddly enough, the BSs did NOT increase after doing so, they just stayed constant...but obviously I need to change the clock to at least the rated speed lol.
Let me do that before I assume the stick are bad.

Also, on my current rig I regularly use 7-10 GB of RAM while I'm gaming, so I'm not too sure 6 GB will be enough.

 

[jsfitz54]

base clock as the 920 isn't unlocked and doing so actually put the RAM at around 2300-2400 Mhz

You are going to burn her system.

 

[jordan1794]

Correction!
I was reading NB frequency, actually her RAM is speed is being automatically controlled by the BIOS.
It was previously 2133Mhz, but now the BIOS is actually underclocking it automatically to 1333 Mhz(ends up being a little higher because of base clock being upped)
So with her RAM underclocking to 1333, and still giving Memtest errors I'm 100% certain she has a chip(or chips) that are bad.

 

[jsfitz54]

Did you test 1 at a time. It's unlikely that all are bad.

 

[jordan1794]

Yeah, now it's time for the obnoxious trial and error tests

 

[jordan1794]

There's actually nothing wrong with her computer. Aging, ever since the Core Inside era has meant very little. If you're not highly overclocking parts or providing ridiculous voltage, as well as having decent airflow and cooling, there's no reason that her "aging" system can't still perform great!

I daresay, under normal circumstances, the things that are most likely to need replacing at some point are fans and HDD's. Better to save the money for those eventualities. If her RAM is failing, then sure, replace that, but no reason to replace yours at all.

Late reply to this, but actually the hard drive did fail, but it had a good life...it was the hard drive I had been using since my first personal(non-family shared) computer back in 6th grade!
Thing was going on 9 years old haha, I still have it as a keepsake.
Luckily I we were keeping everything backed up, as I knew it was going to fail soon so we didn't lose anything.

 

[jordan1794]

Well...the news is rather dismal...
Of the 6 sticks 3 of them produced errors in Memtest86+
:/
I'm testing the 3 good sticks together now in Memtest, I assume they will pass as they passed individually. If they don't pass I might cry lol.

Assuming they pass, I'm gonna let her run with the 6 GB and see how she does, if it's enough then I will leave it be for now...If not I guess I'll probably buy 2 packs of 4 GB RAM and just have an extra stick.


Thanks again for the help/suggestions guys!

 

[jsfitz54]

Sorry for the bad news.

Post back with the results of the 3 presumed good sticks.

Is any of that memory under lifetime warranty?

You may encounter Windows corruption with bad RAM, so see how it goes, you may have to do a fresh install?

 

[jordan1794]

I have no clue on the RAM, my brother bought it 7 years ago...
I actually found a link to the RAM (Obviously not in stock anymore)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365
On that page it says it's 1600 Mhz RAM, perhaps I was looking at the NB frequency before when I assumed it was 2133 Mhz RAM?
I dunno anymore...

Page says a limited lifetime warranty, so I guess I can email them and see lol.
EDIT: Need a purchase receipt/record...so yeah, no warranty
EDIT2: Company went bankrupt and was bought out by Toshiba, warranties didn't come along (surprise surprise)
"Please note, OCZ Storage Solutions - A Toshiba Group Company is not the same organization as OCZ Technology Group. Through bankruptcy proceedings, Toshiba Corporation has acquired substantially all the assets from OCZ Technology Group but most liabilities, including outstanding warranties, have been excluded from that acquisition. As a result, OCZ Storage Solutions is only able to provide warranty support for certain products, as follows"

 

[jsfitz54]

There are lots of memory brands. I have been using GSkill for many different applications in: desktop,s laptops, Apple, Samsung, HP, etc.
It's my go to brand.
I also like Crucial, Adata, Mushkin, Corsair and Kingston.

These for the price look good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148503