OC or Add More RAM?

Win7User512 said:

On my 1366 board, I have 6GB of RAM using the XMP overclocking the sticks to 1600mhz.

Do to the fact I use a lot of memory-intensive apps at one time and often have more than one virtual machine running at a given time, I am considering adding another 6GB to reach the board's limit of 12GB.

However, the P6X58d-E board doesn't not support overclocking the RAM if all slots are full (this is per Intel Specs). Thus I can't overclock more than 6GBs of RAM.

Now, given the fact that free RAM is wasted RAM (and I'd want to fill as much as possible) I have been debating with myself the trade off of making this change.

My system is really fast but I would possibly surrender the speed if I add more RAM and give up the overclocking.

Opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

If you're jut using the XMP profiles you're not really overclocking the system, just the RAM (technically, though that's a debate for another time and place). With that said, you aren't losing anything by adding more RAM. The most that will probably happen is you'll drop from 1600MHz speed down to 1066, however you "might" be able to push it back up to 1333 with a BIOS tweak.

Anyway, adding more RAM would probably offset the speed loss already in use. So yeah, more RAM is better.

And when or if you do decide to add more RAM, try to get the exact same brand. In short - don't mix memory. It actually would be better to get a matching set but.....

My two cents.

Win7User512 said:

Thanks everyone for your posts. Due to the fact I need the extra RAM more than the slight speed advantage I'm going to go with more. Besides, if I need the speed again for one project or another, I can just pull the 3 extra sticks out, and set the XMP again.

As I said earlier, you could probably get some, if not all the speed back through BIOS adjustments or running the XMP profile. And even if you can't it's not worth the hassle of "pulling" the other RAM just to get what ever small performance there "might" be between 12 of RAM running at 1066MHZ vs 6gig of RAM running at 1600MHz. I'm of the opinion that having double the RAM at 1066 is very close to, or trumps by a small margin, 6 gigs at 1600.

On the other hand there's been a debate on whether more than 6gig of RAM is really necessary today's apps. That’s another debate for another time.

My two cents