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peter_m
Premium Member
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC

peter_m

Premium Member

Choosing RAM

Looking to purchase a Dell Precision T3600 and I woul dlike to replace the RAM with two sticks of 8GB ECC registered. Question is should I go for DDR3-1333 1.35volt, or go with DDR3-1600 1.5volt?

I will be running 1, may 2 virtual machines on top of Win7. Nothing too demanding in terms of the load of the VMs.

Is better to have the highest speed possible or lower voltage & lower heat?

Peter M

JimE
Premium Member
join:2003-06-11
Belleville, IL

JimE

Premium Member

It's not typically a matter of which is better, but which is supported by the motherboard.

Both the RAM speed and operating voltage are dictated by the motherboard.

peter_m
Premium Member
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC

peter_m

Premium Member

They are both supported.
aguen
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Grants Pass, OR

aguen to peter_m

Premium Member

to peter_m
Based on my "interpretation" of the DELL spec's for your system, if you go with the 1333 speed mem. you are stuck with 8 GB as the max. amount of memory you can add. If you go with the 1600, you can add up to the max. of 64GB. May want to double check that with Dell though. Also, which CPU and power supply did you select?

peter_m
Premium Member
join:2005-07-13
Canada, QC

peter_m

Premium Member

Xeon 4 core 3.0GHZ, larger 6xx watt PSU
peter_m

peter_m

Premium Member

Chose the 1600 certified for intel: KVR16R11D4/8i

I guess faster is better after all

JimE
Premium Member
join:2003-06-11
Belleville, IL

JimE to peter_m

Premium Member

to peter_m
In most instances, when multiple speeds of RAM are supported by the motherboard, it's because multiple cpu's are supported. RAM speed (unless you are OCing) is set by the cpu.

So if your cpu runs as 1333, and you install 1600 RAM, the motherboard (based on the cpu) will set the RAM speed to 1333.

So again, it's not a matter of simply choosing what is faster. It's a matter of selecting the RAM required by the hardware installed.

norwegian
Premium Member
join:2005-02-15
Outback

norwegian

Premium Member

said by JimE:

In most instances, when multiple speeds of RAM are supported by the motherboard, it's because multiple cpu's are supported. RAM speed (unless you are OCing) is set by the cpu.

I guess as long as it is on the vendor list, I had Geil ram that needed to manually be set to 800mhz, otherwise it would default to 667.
Then after it was failing I bought different RAM and it doesn't need manually setting now. Not relative to the topic, nor correcting you. I'm just pointing it out.