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Two 4x16GB memory kits a bad idea?

413 views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Cloudforever 
#1 ·
Hi all, I am planning a Threadripper build, and am a bit nervous about buying RAM. I can't seem to find any ECC, unbuffered 8x16GB kits, so I am thinking about buying two of these kits and installing them both:
https://www.adorama.com/ct4k16wf824a.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw_8jNBRB-EiwA96Yp1tGZmCKA2t7yP-hXQFQh9yKqJ75CawRRet_HReJS0z9tRY5c7V17YhoCE1YQAvD_BwE

If I do this, how big a risk is it that the two kits won't work together? Does each memory stick have to be tested for compatibility with each other one? Or if stick A is compatible with stick B and stick B is compatible with stick C, does that mean that stick A and stick C will be compatible? It would seem to me that the probability of screwing myself with two expensive but incompatible kits depends on this question.

Any help would be appreciated.

ALSO: I have not finalized a motherboard decision yet, but I am strongly leadning towards the X399 Taichi.

EDIT: Mods, feel free to move this the Memory or some other section. I posted it here because it's for a TR build, but I realize that might not have been the right choice.
 
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#2 ·
There is no guarantee that two kits will work together which is the reason why its always better to buy a larger single kit instead of two smaller ones
I had a system a few years ago where i bought two RAM kits and they never worked quite like they should when ran together but ran fine alone

Ended up selling them and buying a larger and faster kit instead.
 
#3 ·
That sucks, because it looks like I don't have a choice if I want 128Gb ECC. Maybe I can get away with using non-ECC, or maybe I should just settle for only 64Gb. But since I am trying to set up a two-headed virtualized ZFS workstation, I think ECC and all the memory I can get are probably ideal.

Perhaps I could by the two kits and try to return one if they don't work together. But how do I know that they work together well enough? If I can get through a prime95 test with all sticks at their rated speed, does that mean I'm good to go? Or could there be subtle instability not obvious from stress testing?
 
#4 ·
Depends on how comfortable you are setting your own subtimings.

If you want to set it and forget it with XMP timings, then adding a second kit may cause issues. If you know what timings are most likely to need tuning to get more ranks per channel working on whatever platform you're using, you can make almost anything work well.

Edit: You'll be fine with the memory you have selected. Those are pure JEDEC and the only thing that makes them a kit is that they are sold together. They don't have timings that aren't going to work with two DIMMs per channel and aren't pushed to the point any IMC that officially supports DDR4-2400 is going to have trouble with them.
 
#6 ·
Just letting you know, overclocking 128gb of ram can/will be a pain.

I managed to overclock mine to 3060mhz, but i havent seen a single other person get speeds as high as mine yet.

I would recommend getting samsung b die if you plan on overclocking it.

Otherwise, be prepared for 2400mhz speeds or less.
 
#8 ·
FYI - not sure if this is going to help any.

we burn through MANY 8GB's and 16GB's at work (I work on dell M620 M630 blades) doing upgrades and we match everything to order, like one brand, but no specific kits and we've not had any issues with it. As long as you identically match the spec for spec / brands / model #'s, you should be OK. This was not my choosing, btw.

only rare occassion on where 1 bad stick was bad and we trashed it out of like.... 40 blades in the past month or so when i did the upgrades.
 
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