Help W/ Ram Kit Mixing Compatibility, Please

[japanimater]

Relevant Build Specs:
Mobo: Asus > P6TD Deluxe
CPU: Intel > i7-920 2.66GHz
OS: Microsoft > Windows 7 64bit Professional
[Current]RAM: Kingston > KVR1066D3N7/2G > 4x2GB
...additional specs available upon request.

For the first time since I built my system back in 2010 I decided now would be a good time to max out my memory for the price/quality I found. Another factor is being between getting my Graphic Design degree and actually getting the job. Between the CPU, GPU, and RAM, memory is the most cost efficient for it's relative performance for compatibility and availability of parts. I do some PC gaming, but that is not the reason I'm upgrading.

I'm a heavy multi-tasker who usually has 1-2 instances of Firefox with approx. 1-2 dozen tabs between them, a media player, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Steam open at any given time. Plus, I like having overhead. I don't overclock anything and I am doing research into paging, SuperFetch, etc. to take full advantage of the upgrade.

I am wanting to upgrade to 24GB of memory while being conscientious of price vs. performance. While spending countless hours reading up on compatibility and spec sheets, articles and forums, and product reviews, I found [Ripjaws] F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL and [Ripjaws] F3-8500CL7Q-16GBRL. Paranoid about compatibility and going through the hassle of returns, RMA's, etc. I got the exact specs as my current RAM save for the number and capacity of the sticks and the fact they come in kits.

My question and concern is if it'll work by mixing these two kits in my system and still recognize it as triple channeled 24GB of RAM. Despite all the hours of research, I figured I'd actually ask someone so my mind can be put to ease.. Thanks for the help!

TLDR: Will mixing the two aforementioned kits in the aforementioned system give me an operable triple channeled 24GB of memory?

[G.SKILL]

Hi

For high performance memory module, we will not recommend you mixing memory kits at the same time, even same model number. To avoid the incompatible issue between memory kits.

But for the standard 1333MHz, you can match them because the standard should be able to match up.

However, your system is compatible with low density 256x8(double sided) memory chips only, and most of the DDR3 memory who made out recently were all high density 512x8(single sided), the only solution for low density is f3-10666cl9d-8gbnt, and this is the only memory kit who will be able to used for your system.

[japanimater]

Hi
...for the standard 1333MHz, you can match them because the standard should be able to match up

...your system is compatible with low density 256x8(double sided) memory chips only...the only solution for low density is f3-10666cl9d-8gbnt, and this is the only memory kit [that] will be able to [be] used for your system.

Thank you for the response, but a concern of mine is the 1333MHz. While doing research, I found that for some higher speeds on some mobo's, overclocking would be required for either all of the RAM to be utilized or utilized at all. Unfortunately, I have no desire to do any overclocking.

Regardless of what I think, would I still be able to mix 3 of that kit (6x4GB) and have it still work without any overclocking, BIOS tweaking, etc. ? Thanks again!

UPDATE:1
On G.Skill's Memory Configurator, it listed F3-10666CL9T2-24GBRL as being compatible, it has the exact number and capacity of RAM I need, and it is available. Wouldn't this work without any overclocking or BIOS tweaking? Many Thanks!

[G.SKILL]

Hi

For DDR3 1333MHz, you can mix 3 kits at the same time, it's working without any overclock.

As we mentioned above, the F3-10666CL9T2-24GBRL is using high density memory chips, and your system is capable for low density memory kit only. The only low density memory kit is F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT.

[japanimater]

Hi

...As we mentioned above, the F3-10666CL9T2-24GBRL is using high density memory chips, and your system is capable for low density memory kit only.

Thanks again for the quick clarification, I'll be buying three kits of F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT then.

Just for future reference, what part of my system won't allow high density memory chips? I ask this because on my mobo's compatibility page on your site, it said that very same kit would be compatible. I assume it's my processor from what system specs I gave, but that's just speculation.

[G.SKILL]

Hi,

It's about the BIOS update, motherboard need a newer BIOS update that make the system to recognize high density memory module, and some old motherboard didn't provide it as well.

Usually most of the late 2011 updates could fixed the density issue, or you could confirm about the density issue with your motherboard manufacturer.

[japanimater]

Hi,

It's about the BIOS update, [the] motherboard need[s] a newer BIOS update that make[s] the system...recognize high density memory module[s], and some old motherboard[s]..[don't]..provide it as well.

Usually most of the late 2011 updates could fix.. the density issue, or you could confirm about the density issue with your motherboard manufacturer.

Geez, even after all of those hours researching RAM and compatibility, the concept of density never showed up. Since your reply, I've done some research into RAM density and even though the concept makes sense, trying to figure out whether it's high or low just from xMB and yM * z is still confusing. The best guide I could find was this one on EBay. Even then, the number convention is still confusing and that guide is from 2009. So there's no telling how much has changed since then.

Well, it's a good thing I took the extra precaution of actually asking in a forum rather than try to find the question already asked and answered. Since I know now, having ordered it right before starting this thread but having not received it yet, I won't have to try the RAM first, see that it doesn't work or worse, then find out why on a forum, and have a harder time shipping it back and getting a refund since it's open and used.

At least now, typing in as little as [ p6td deluxe density ] into Google brings up this thread on the front page. So if someone else has a similar situation, they'll have their answer.

[GSKILL TECH]

You should be able to use 8GB modules. It is not officially supported, but many users have been successful.

[japanimater]

You should be able to use 8GB modules. It is not officially supported, but many users have been successful.

I read about some users trying that and were able to somehow manage 48GB, but I get paranoid when it comes to exceeding thresholds with money being hard to come by and all. I have already ordered 3 of that 2x4GB kit, but thanks anyways for the advice. Once I [successfully] install the RAM, I'll try to do a follow-up.


I'm just curious as to why F3-10666CL9T2-24GBRL still showed as compatible for my mobo despite the incompatible density. My best guess is that G.Skill wouldn't being in possession of every single one of those hundreds of boards and tried all of their known RAM on every one of them, since that would be largely inefficient. I'm pretty sure that they just log each of the board's and RAM's individual specifications into sets and subsets of arrays, then have JavaScript, JQuery, or whatever, run them through conditional looping to see which product pairings come back as 'true' or 'false'. The ones that test true return the values of the Ram, the corresponding URL and image in a user-friendly list. However, I'm confident that amongst that sea of specs, RAM density was overlooked, which caused some false positives to generate.

I tried to verify that logic by examining the code and, hopefully, find a list of arrays and values. The best I could find was that my board would return a value of 203 via Ajax/JSON to be compared server-side. I guess trade secrets will be trade secrets. The deepest I could go until I hit that wall was "function compare_do(id, obj){};", line 298-342 in func.js.

[GSKILL TECH]

You might have a problem with those kits. You need the triple channel kit, they are compatible with X58 motherboards despite the high density. Let us know how it goes

[japanimater]

Here's my follow-up on how the installation went with the 3 8GB (2*4GB) kits (F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT), mixed to make triple channeled 24GBs.

I was able to install all 6 sticks without any modifications or tweaking, it started up normally, and the OS recognized all 24GBs. I'm including some images of a system specs scan via CPU-Z. Just please keep in mind that I just upgraded the GPU last night from a Geforce GTX 460 to a Geforce GTX 950 (Zotac).

Image 1-4 of 7, due to 5 image limit.

CPU/Processor

Cache

Mainboard/Motherboard

Memory/RAM


Continued...

[GSKILL TECH]

Looks good!

[japanimater]

...Continued

Image 5-7 of 7, due to 5 image limit.

Same specs for slots 1-5

For some reason, slot #6 comes up empty even through it's active and working.

Graphics/GPU/Video Card