So, last night my Motherboard crapped out. Rather than getting pissed(as my life in general has been going good lately) I looked at it as an opportunity to upgrade from 775 to 1366. The board install went smoothly, but now I have an interesting memory dilemma.
I had a 775 motherboard that supported ddr3 1333, and because of deals and rebates, the best deal brand had three were cheaper than 2, so I bought a triple channel kit, and only used two of them in dual channel. a medium goodish, OCZ Gold FWIW.
Later I realized four gigs was running slow with the database work I do, so I bought an additional dual channel kit, this time OCZ platinum, better goodish memory.
But now I am stuck figuring out what memory config I should use in my triple channel ddr3 1600 board.
- Use the triple channel kit as intended for 6 gig of memory, TC speed.
- Use Two of each and get 8 gigs double channel.
- use all 5 and get 10 gigs in what I would assume would be single channel, because I doubt the motherboard could resolve triple channel and dual together for anything more useful.
- Buy a single matching stick of the platinum and run 12 gigs triple channel. This one is problematic because nobody sells it in single 2 gig sticks, so I would have to scour ebay and Craigs list for someone selling an extra one.
- By a matching dual channel platinum kit, using only 1 of them for 110 bucks or so, again for 12 gigs
- ignore all my existing memory. Buy a totally new set of triple channel ddr3 1600 memory, price depending on quality. for 6 gigs*
- Blow the bank and buy 2 TC kits for 12 gigs.
I am currently on option 1.
Option 4 is out because I don’t want the headache.
Option 7 is out too, really just a poor cost-benefit ratio, I don’t really need 12 gigs.
Option 2, I may have to do some benchmarking, neither has cost, I don’t know which will be faster.
Option 3, Just sounds weird to me, but I may have to benchmark it as well, but I doubt it is any benefit.
Option 5. It’s a possible. I don’t really need 12 gigs as I said. But I did see a noticable improvement moving from 4 to 8, but was the greatest rate from 4-6 or from 6-8? I don’t know, I’ll see how 6 does for now I guess because there is no way to benchmark without buying the damn things.
option6. Has the benefit of being the most flexible in the future. But ultimately I’d be paying 175 or so, for a bit faster memory speed*, and I doubt the Cost-benefit is very good there at all.
Sigh. 
*the 1600MHZ would really only be a benefit if I overclocked. I am not doing it now because I am and old-school geek and always use a burn in for a couple weeks. Will I OC in the future… who knows, depends on stability and how slow it seems when I get into stuff again