Upgrade advice on Memory /ssd

ripeinmay

Hi there,

Just looking for a bit of help with upgrading my pc.
I have a Gigabyte - GA-P55-UD3 (rev. 1.0) motherboard running windows 64bit, and I'd like to max it out with as much RAM as possible. From looking at the spec sheet it says it will take upto 16gb with its four slots. I was wondering if that was because of the limitations of a 32bit windows system only taking 4gb of ram per slot. Could I put in more than the stated 16gb with a 64bit system? Also could someone recommend what ram I should buy? Ideally something top end. DDR3 2200mhz type thing.

Second question is on buying an ssd, I'm looking for a 120gb drive that would be compatable with the Sata on this board? Any recommendations ? I was thinking Samsung 840!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, it's been a while since I've looked into an upgrade and would appreciate the help.

Also reason for upgrade is general usage with some adobe creative suite and 3d work. Budget wise I was thinking 200-300 total.

ripeinmay

I was thinking of getting two sets of these...
CORSAIR 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 - PC3-12800 - CL9 Vengeance Performance PC Memory Modules

Are these comparable with my board? Does anyone reckon I could do better?

U_Fig

Ok firstly the max ram the motherboard will support will be 16GB regardless of the operating system used.. So depending on what you have now get 2x4GB or 4x4GB if you have none at all or 2x8GB

If the ram you have at the moment is running at 1333mhz then any ram you add will only run at at 1333mhz.. So buying faster ram you will need to buy all new ram
Gigabite site will show exactly what ram it supports

Also and SATA 6GB SSD you add will be bottkenecked by the SATA 3GB ports on your motherboard and will run max at about 200-300MB/s as opposed to 500-600MB/s still a vast improvement but not as much as possible.. Go for crucial m4 they are very reliable

ripeinmay

U_Fig wrote: »

Ok firstly the max ram the motherboard will support will be 16GB regardless of the operating system used.. So depending on what you have now get 2x4GB or 4x4GB if you have none at all or 2x8GB

If the ram you have at the moment is running at 1333mhz then any ram you add will only run at at 1333mhz.. So buying faster ram you will need to buy all new ram
Gigabite site will show exactly what ram it supports

Also and SATA 6GB SSD you add will be bottkenecked by the SATA 3GB ports on your motherboard and will run max at about 200-300MB/s as opposed to 500-600MB/s still a vast improvement but not as much as possible.. Go for crucial m4 they are very reliable

Thanks for the reply I plan on completely replacing the ram as I currently have 2x2gb at 1333mhz. Do you think the ram I mentioned above will do the trick? Looking into the crucial m4 now aswell, reviews seem solid! Geddit solid! Never mind!

Thanks again

ripeinmay

CORSAIR PC Vengeance Memory 4 x 4 GB DDR3-1866 - PC3-14900 - CL9

Quick question on the Gigabyte website it states : Support for DDR3 2200/1600/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules

No mention of 1866mhz, does that mean if i get the above Crosair sticks they wont work with my board, should i go looking for 2200 mhz/1600mhz?

marco_polo

There is very little point in getting DDR3 any faster than about DDR3-1600 as beyond this you will see very limited real world benefits (For Sandybridge), so there is no real point in buying the much more expensive top end stuff.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

BloodBath

32 bit os will only recognise less than 4gb's of ram total, not 4gb per slot.

You will need to upgrade to a 64 bit os if you are going above 4gb of ram.

ripeinmay

Thanks Blood Bath im running Win 7 - 64bit, so i should be able to max out too 16GB. I decided to go with ....
CORSAIR 4 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 - PC3-12800 - CL9 Vengeance Performance PC Memory Modules and a Crucial M4 128gb SSD.

Looking forward to the upgrade

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Wossack

there are sometimes caveats with the max memory possible on a motherboard - typically limiting the speed at that capacity

just try and confirm everything is going to be compatible, without any gotchas, before you purchase anything - check out the gigabyte website, and they should have a memory guide for the motherboard, for example