Questions of RAM

[GregRedd]

Evening all

Been considering adding another set of RAM sticks to my rig, but want to confirm some stuff with you clever tech types before I go and do something dumb again.

At the moment I have 2 x 8GB Mushkin Blackline DDR3-2133 CL10 sticks installed on a MSI Gaming 9 board. Max supported RAM on the board is 32GB, DDR3, can't find confirmed RAM speed max, but am assuming I could go to faster RAM if I could afford to (which I can't really )

1. Is adding RAM still as useful and effective an "upgrade" as it used to be in days of olde?
2. The board has 4 RAM slots. Is it still advisable to use them in matched pairs? (2 slots with 8GB in each, or 4 slots with 4GB in each, for eg.)...
3. ...Or would there be any problem in using 3 x 8GB sticks to go to 24GB total, or even a single 32GB stick?
4. How important is it to match RAM brand and specs to my existing sticks if I decide to just add in another 2? I imagine the DDR3-2133 and CL10 specs need to match, but would a different brand be an issue? (I ask because I can't find matching sticks anywhere online locally, although I haven't really searched all that hard yet.)
5. Given a RAM expansion budget of R2k-R3k max, what would you do?

[mottamort]

Just gonna answer 5.

If i had 16gb of ddr3 2133 sticks, upgrading RAM would be the last place I look at improving performance in any shape or form.

Link if you interested in read a bit more.

[DarthMol]

I agree with mott, 16GB of RAM is plenty. Rather put the money towards something like a new gfx card or more storage.

[GregRedd]

Just gonna answer 5.

If i had 16gb of ddr3 2133 sticks, upgrading RAM would be the last place I look at improving performance in any shape or form.

Link if you interested in read a bit more.

Thanks Motta (and Darth for the confirmation). That's exactly the sort of info I needed, and why I knew posting my Qs here was the right thing to do. The note in that article and the linked post and video in it, match my clearly dated knowledge of the days when doubling RAM from 1GB to 2GB made a difference. Glad to know that times have indeed changed.

So GTX 1070, seems like you might be back on the table....

[mottamort]

Thanks Motta (and Darth for the confirmation). That's exactly the sort of info I needed, and why I knew posting my Qs here was the right thing to do. The note in that article and the linked post and video in it, match my clearly dated knowledge of the days when doubling RAM from 1GB to 2GB made a difference. Glad to know that times have indeed changed.

So GTX 1070, seems like you might be back on the table....

Happy to help
If your money (that you put aside for RAM) is burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to throw your current specs and I'm sure we can point you in the right direction on where to get most bang for buck
But I'm fairly confident you can tick RAM off the list of necessary upgrades, I'd consider your RAM setup to be rather high-end at this time.

[GregRedd]

Happy to help
If your money (that you put aside for RAM) is burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to throw your current specs and I'm sure we can point you in the right direction on where to get most bang for buck
But I'm fairly confident you can tick RAM off the list of necessary upgrades, I'd consider your RAM setup to be rather high-end at this time.

Thanks, but it's all good. Still very happy with my rig at the moment. Was put together with Jokers help about 18 months ago only and still makes me smile whenever I boot it up. Was really just curious about the RAM thing.

Mrs. Redd is off on a business trip to the States tomorrow and if she gets a chance will see if she can find someone with a GTX 1070 in stock to bring back as a "gift" for me from her client there. But that's only because she's going there anyway. And only if she finds one easily enough. If it works, excellent. If not, I'm more than happy sticking with my 970 for a while longer.

Thanks again for the help.


Edit to add:
Oh, and I have a teenage daughter. Money never stays in my pocket long enough to burn a hole in it!