new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots? Topic is solved

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Hyperionnn
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new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots?

Post by Hyperionnn »

Hi power computer pros, freaks and gods,

for a customer, I'd like to create a new pc for excessive photoshop and lightroom work. She is a real estate agent and creates 360° videos with pics from the houses.

The main decision is to take a board with 2 RAM slots or 4.

2: e.g. ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac
4: e.g. ASRock Z390 Pro4

2: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z390%20 ... cification
4: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z390%20 ... cification

RAM would be:
A) 32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-4000 CL19 or
B) 2x 16GB (2x8GB) G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-4266 CL1

A) http://gskill.com/en/product/f4-4000c19d-32gtzkk
B) http://gskill.com/en/product/f4-4266c19d-16gtzsw

As a Hard disk, I would suggest a 1 TB Samsung 970 Evo. OS: Win 10 Pro

I'd like to create a 16 GB RAM-Disk for Photoshop working directories

Is there any difference in stability of using RAM with Primo Ramdisk and PrimoCache with a 2 RAM slot board compared with a 4 ram slot board?

Do you have any suggestions for better and more stable mainboards or vendors I should definitely use oder avoid?

Thanks a lot for reading, thinking about my question and for your helpful answer
Hyperionnn
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Jaga
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Re: new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots?

Post by Jaga »

I've run both triple-channel (6 populated slots for 24GB of RAM) and dual-channel (4 populated slots for 64GB of RAM) with Primocache, and neither configuration had any stability issues at all, even overclocking the RAM (it needs to be a stable overclock of course). None of the RAM was ECC either.

From that perspective, Primocache itself is a very stable piece of software, and you shouldn't have any problems provided you thoroughly test your hardware when you build the system so you are sure the underlying hardware itself is stable.

Edit: just realized I referenced Primocache, and the post is in the Primo Ramdisk section. However - the same response applies - I've owned and run Primo Ramdisk on both of the mentioned system configurations, and it has zero stability problems either. Both pieces of software are solid - just be sure to test your hardware very thoroughly.
Last edited by Jaga on Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Support
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Re: new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots?

Post by Support »

As Jaga said, this mostly depends on hardware itself, especially RAM sticks for making dual- or triple-channel, better using same brand and same model of RAM sticks. Normally 4 slots means 2 groups of dual-channel, and usually there shall be almost no stability difference between 4 slots and 2 slots, especially you only use 2 ram sticks, unless you get a bad-design or bad-quality motherboard. I prefer 4-slot motherboard rather than 2-slot board for the scalability of ram capacity, if you budget is enough.
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Jaga
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Re: new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots?

Post by Jaga »

support wrote: Wed Feb 20, 2019 12:34 pmI prefer 4-slot motherboard rather than 2-slot board for the scalability of ram capacity, if you budget is enough.
Totally agree with this statement - keeping options open for future changes is very handy.

As a sidenote: server motherboards, while more expensive, generally tend to be a *lot* more robust and stable. I see a lot fewer DOAs (dead-on-arrivals) and motherboards that die in the first year, when I use server class MBs. If stability and reliability is your ultimate goal, then you might consider putting more money towards a server class motherboard.
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RAMbo
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Re: new mainboard with 2 or 4 RAM Slots - more stable with 2 slots?

Post by RAMbo »

Upgrading from 2 to 4 sticks means they aren't from the same kit.
It's usally recommended to but a kit because those sticks are almost identical. More identical than random sticks that seem to have identical specs.

That's not claiming it will cause stability issues for sure, but if you main goal is stability it may be a point to consider.

For a long time I kept upgrading in mind. Over the years I learned I never do. When I'm finally ready to put in more RAM I usually have thoughts like: Why waste $ on slow memory when memory is so much faster nowadays? If even possible that means swapping all sticks.

For Photoshop and Lightroom there isn't such a thing as 'enough RAM' especially not when used excessively.
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