# Can i run my old X58 RAM in a X79?



## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

Just asking because im going to be upgrading soon and RAM is last on the list


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## DOM (Nov 15, 2011)

there both dd3 i dont see why not


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## Scatler (Nov 15, 2011)

Why the hell not? It's not like x79 doesn't support DDR3 modules.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

Cool thanks will save me $200 for awhile


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## sneekypeet (Nov 15, 2011)

your 12GB of ram, is that 3 X 4 or 6 X 2GB kits?

reason I ask is that X79 is built around quad channel, or 4 sticks of ram.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> your 12GB of ram, is that 3 X 4 or 6 X 2GB kits?
> 
> reason I ask is that X79 is built around quad channel, or 4 sticks of ram.



Its 6 x 2gb kits i got it on the release of the X58


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## sneekypeet (Nov 15, 2011)

Awesome, use 4 X 2GB for quad channel, keep a hold of the extra 4GB just in case


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## BlackOmega (Nov 15, 2011)

You can use them, however, they might not run at "advertised" specs. I ran in to this issue with some G.Skill ripjawsX. They advertise them as "Designed specifically for P67", and of course I was like whatever, they're DDR3, they'll work. Oh sure they worked, but not anywhere close to their advertised specs of 2133MHz. No matter what I did, I couldn't get them to run any faster than 1066Mhz, no matter how much I messed with the voltages. 
 The only consolation though, they would do 5-5-5-15 timings @ 1066, so that kinda made up for it. 

 I've since sold those off and got a set "specifically engineered for x58" and it works beautifully.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

BlackOmega said:


> You can use them, however, they might not run at "advertised" specs. I ran in to this issue with some G.Skill ripjawsX. They advertise them as "Designed specifically for P67", and of course I was like whatever, they're DDR3, they'll work. Oh sure they worked, but not anywhere close to their advertised specs of 2133MHz. No matter what I did, I couldn't get them to run any faster than 1066Mhz, no matter how much I messed with the voltages.
> The only consolation though, they would do 5-5-5-15 timings @ 1066, so that kinda made up for it.
> 
> I've since sold those off and got a set "specifically engineered for x58" and it works beautifully.



Lets hope the XMP still work on my ram running them on the x79 chipset


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## Lazzer408 (Nov 15, 2011)

I don't see any reason it wouldn't. In fact, you may be able to push them harder. In the past I've always been able to get a little bit more speed and tighter timings with my 775/DDR2 gear as newer chipsets came out. aka x48>925. Either that or they just built better boards but I didn't go from a $50 925 board to a $250 x48 board and say "oh wow look how fast my memory is now with this new chipset". I've always used high end boards when I upgraded. The memory controller is in the CPU now so this may not apply but one can hope there have been improvements in the controller.


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## BlackOmega (Nov 15, 2011)

Live OR Die said:


> Lets hope the XMP still work on my ram running them on the x79 chipset



Quite honestly, I doubt the XMP profile will work. But look at it this way, if you _have to_ run it at a lower frequency, just crank the crap out of the timings. 
 When I was running those RipjawX @ 1066 CAS 5, they were actually really fast. It was definitely a noticeable improvement over OCZ sticks I had in there (1333 CAS 9).

 With RAM it's a direct inverse function, the higher the frequency, the looser (numerically higher) the timings. And vice versa. You can actually experiment with it and you'll notice that even if you're running at a lower frequency, with super tight timings (numerically lower) you may actually have more performance that's noticeable at keyboard level.


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## Fourstaff (Nov 15, 2011)

Careful with the voltage, I know 1366 kits have up to 1.65v rather than the standard 1.5v


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

Fourstaff said:


> Careful with the voltage, I know 1366 kits have up to 1.65v rather than the standard 1.5v



Yer ill have to set the voltage to 1.5 and run the memory at a lower clock but its only for a few weeks after i upgrade.


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## DOM (Nov 15, 2011)

What mb are you going to get some have 6slots


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 15, 2011)

DOM said:


> What mb are you going to get some have 6slots



ASUS Rampage IV Extreme


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## n-ster (Nov 15, 2011)

I didn't read the comments, but a suggestion if you like/need more RAM.

I personally have 6x4GB of RAM on my X58 system and I have 2x4GB of the same RAM on its way to have 8x4GB for X79


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 17, 2011)

Im not to sure about the voltage on my sicks they run @ 1.65v and seems X79 ram runs at only 1.5v should i lower the voltage down when installing my ram ?


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## Fourstaff (Nov 17, 2011)

Live OR Die said:


> Im not to sure about the voltage on my sicks they run @ 1.65v and seems X79 ram runs at only 1.5v should i lower the voltage down when installing my ram ?



Yes, lower it when you install, if your ram can run fine with lowered voltage. you might need to loosen timings and latency if its not stable, the usual tricks. I am not sure what the long term effects will be running the ram voltage 10% higher than specced though.


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## n-ster (Nov 17, 2011)

I believe X79 can probably handle 1.65V no problem... At worst their might be another voltage to change to be safe... I ran RAM at 1.8V on X58 (I had to make sure whatever voltage was within a certain voltage of my RAM voltage beforehand) for example and it ran great

EDIT: Seems X79 RAM is coming out @ 1.65V http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155290 so it should NOT be a problem at all


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## cadaveca (Nov 17, 2011)

n-ster said:


> EDIT: Seems X79 RAM is coming out @ 1.65V http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=155290 so it should NOT be a problem at all



WHoa, partner!


The fact new kits are coming out, should tell you something!!!

I recommend using X79-approved ram only, and suggest 1.5v ram.

Thing is votlage may be the same, but you cannot know if CURRENT draw will be the same. With higher bandwidth on the same frequency, you can basically guarantee that the current pulled by those sticks will be higher than on X58. I cannot say that older ram will be fine, but as I work on my X79 reviews, you can bet I will be asking OEMs what they think.


Ram is so cheap now, if you are buying into X79, and cannot afford new ram, I suggest you re-evaluate your priorities.


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## n-ster (Nov 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> WHoa, partner!
> 
> 
> The fact new kits are coming out, should tell you something!!!
> ...



Never thought current could be a problem  There are always new kits, and it is even more normal since it is a channel change ie: triple-channel RAM in packs of 3, so quad is in packs of 4, so that can't be an indication.

TBH, I'll try my luck with my current RAM, if it doesn't work I'll sell my RAM and have an excuse to go 1866+ lol


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## cadaveca (Nov 17, 2011)

Yeah, I hear ya. I do plan to try 4 sticks od 1156 rma I have to see how it works, but I am leary of it working just because of my own experience with two kits of the same ram from the same batch being so very different...and both of them NOT working together very well.

If we were talking 1333MHz 1.5v stuff, sure, I think that should be fine, but it becomes questionable when using XMP-based memory.

X79 introduces XMP v1.3, while Sandybridge is XMP 1.2. I am not 100% sure how XMP v1.2 or XMP 1.1 memory will work, but, as always, I WILL be checking!


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> WHoa, partner!
> 
> 
> The fact new kits are coming out, should tell you something!!!
> ...



Well some stores here are selling dual ch kits as quad which probably isnt right then, Takes these for example

Listed as a Quad ch kit for X79
G.SKILL 16GB KIT DDR3 RIPJAWS X C11 2133MHZ (F3-17000CL11Q-16GBXL)

But on the G.SKILL website they say RIPJAWS Z is for x79 not RIPJAWS X beats me.


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## cadaveca (Nov 17, 2011)

More than likely they think sticks will work.

Kits for Sandybridge _should_ be OK, but there will be some sets that just won't be capable of the same speeds as they are rated for.

If the memory is on the board's QVL, it should be fine, but there will always be isntances of kits not working fully, no matter the situation. The differences in XMP versions is something that could _potentiallly_ cause issues, but again, I don't have a CPU yet(retail not available locally), so the best I can go with is MANUFACTURER specifications.


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## SK-1 (Nov 17, 2011)

"Old" X58... lol kinda... My 939s slingbox is old lol...


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## Wumpus (Nov 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> WHoa, partner!
> 
> 
> The fact new kits are coming out, should tell you something!!!
> ...



LOL you sire are VERY misinformed...

Higher bandwidth is from the faster architecture of the memory controller...and does not make the ram draw any more current than it could from any other DDR3 DIMM in any other motherboard. It has absolutely nothing to do with the memory bandwidth. 

please google things before you post them if you are not sure.


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## cadaveca (Nov 17, 2011)

LuLz.

The memory controller is NOT faster. It's got twice the channels. Quite a few boards even have independant voltage controls for each bank of DIMMs.

The efficiency of X79 is no different than SandyBridge. But, if we are talking about first-gen i5/i7 chips then yes, current draw can be higher. you don't magically get more bandwidth out fo the same product without increasing power consumption in some way, and the gen two i5/i7's offer nearly double the bandwidth. I didn't say the current draw is higher by double, but overall there is an increased load placed on the DIMMs which can affect stability at rated speeds.



Wumpus said:


> please google things before you post them if you are not sure.




Um..yeah. Google? I tend to ask OEMs directly when I don't have an answer to a question. If an OEM doesn't certify any product for a certain platform, you take your chances.


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## Wumpus (Nov 17, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> LuLz.
> 
> The memory controller is NOT faster. It's got twice the channels. Quite a few boards even have independant voltage controls for each bank of DIMMs.
> 
> ...



answers in bold


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## cadaveca (Nov 17, 2011)

Wumpus said:


> and that is incorrect by the way.



Um, you do understand I do board reviews for TPU, right? I can provide more BIOS shots to prove my point, if you like.


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## Wumpus (Nov 17, 2011)

YES it has twice the channels of sandy bridge. 

YES it is faster by a LONG ways than first gen i5/i7 CPU's


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

like it matters if you do board reviews for tpu,it doesnt make you any smarter than the next person..you really should quit talking yourself up when your not really that great


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

Wumpus said:


> YES it has twice the channels of sandy bridge.
> 
> YES it is faster by a LONG ways than first gen i5/i7 CPU's



YES, there is independant voltage control per bank, and

YES, there are individual current settings per channel even.


And finally.

Yes, and load in increased, power consumption increases? Are you going to try to tell me that DIMMs get hot under load for no reason? 



AthlonX2 said:


> like it matters if you do board reviews for tpu,it doesnt make you any smarter than the next person..you really should quit talking yourself up when your not really that great



Thanks for the feedback. You're more than welcome to take my position if you can do a better job.


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## Wumpus (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> YES, there is independant votlage control per bank, and
> 
> Yes, there are individual current settings per channel even.
> 
> ...



I am telling you that a triple channel kit from X58 will NOT draw any more current on X79 than it did on X58. 

Like wise, i am also saying the opposite. Memory IC's only draw so much power, no matter the platform.


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> YES, there is independant voltage control per bank, and
> 
> YES, there are individual current settings per channel even.
> 
> ...



thanks for the offer dave but i would prefer to get paid for my work


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

Wumpus said:


> Memory IC's only draw so much power, no matter the platform.



Yes, but that is dependant on the load they are under.



AthlonX2 said:


> thanks for the offer dave but i would prefer to get paid for my work



I was offered pay and turned it down, so I can always claim I won't be bought.  If you're not good enough to get pay from TPU, then that's something else.


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> I was offered pay and turned it down, so I can always claim I won't be bought.  If you're not good enough to get pay from TPU, then that's something else.




So since your tpu's elite motherboard reviewer,are you going to CES next year?


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

AthlonX2 said:


> So since your tpu's elite motherboard reviewer,are you going to CES next year?



Nope. I don't have time for that.  Being elite and all.


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Nope. I don't have time for that.  Being elite and all.



Dont have time or not allowed in the states? All the elite people will be there


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 18, 2011)

Well im going to get some new ram they just got the G.Skill Ripjaws Z in stock not sure what to get though any ideas? 

A.
G.Skill Ripjaws Z F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH (4x4GB) DDR3 
Quad Channel Memory Designed For Intel X79 platform. Intel XMP 1.3 Ready. DDR3-2133 PC3 17000, 16GB (4x 4GB), 9-11-10-28-2N, 1.65V, 240pin, unbuffered, Non ECC, 42mm height, lifetime warranty.
$219.00 


B.
G.Skill Ripjaws Z F3-17000CL11Q-16GBZL (4x4GB) DDR3
Quad Channel Memory Designed For Intel X79 platform. Intel XMP 1.3 Ready. DDR3-2133 PC3 17000, 16GB (4x 4GB), 11-11-11-30-2N, 1.6V, 240pin, unbuffered, Non ECC, 42mm height, lifetime warranty.
$209.00


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

your ram will work,just have an extra sticks.


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## Wumpus (Nov 18, 2011)

use old ram, and have a good day.


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

AthlonX2 said:


> Dont have time or not allowed in the states? All the elite people will be there



The position of being an independant reviewer is more valuable for me. Why a reviewer would want to cover news from a trade show...I'm not sure. That's for the news staff, IMHO. I'll get the stuff to play with eventually anyway...rather than the tease.



Live OR Die said:


> Well im going to get some new ram they just got the G.Skill Ripjaws Z in stock not sure what to get though any ideas?
> 
> A.
> G.Skill Ripjaws Z F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH (4x4GB) DDR3
> ...



I have the first set. When retail CPUs are available locally, I'll be posting a review. Personally, I'd rather have the lower voltage set. Timings won't make that large of a difference in daily usage.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 18, 2011)

lol i went for the top set >_< but i guess u can always run the top set at the same timing as the 2nd set right?


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

Funny our elite motherboard reviewer is sold on marketing hype. just because memory isnt tested on a specific platform doesnt mean its not going to work.


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

Live OR Die said:


> lol i went for the top set >_< but i guess u can always run the top set at the same timing as the 2nd set right?



Sure, but I'm not sure they'll work at the same voltage yet. They could even be an entirely different IC, pretty sure there's 3 possibilities right now. I know what ones my kit has.



AthlonX2 said:


> Funny our elite motherboard reviewer is sold on marketing hype. just because memory isnt tested on a specific platform doesnt mean its not going to work.



I didn't say that...I just simply said there is a chance they won't. It's only $200 bucks, what's the big deal? When you're spending $1000 already for a good board and CPU...

I mean really...$200 for 16GB of 2133...that's guaranteed to work. Try to RMA memory that doesn't work, for whatever reason...OEMs can simply answer that it wasn't intended for that platform, and you're SOL.


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## Athlon2K15 (Nov 18, 2011)

Theres always a chance that memory isnt going to work even if it is certified to work with a platform,ive had mushkins that were made for X58 not work at all but worked fine on a p55


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

AthlonX2 said:


> Theres always a chance that memory isnt going to work even if it is certified to work with a platform,ive had mushkins that were made for X58 not work at all but worked fine on a p55



Well that's just it. Small price to pay, when the cost is high to begin with. The warranty for the operation for the platform is worth the cost, IMHO.


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## Wumpus (Nov 18, 2011)

his point is that if it works, why buy more stuff that you arent sure works?


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## kid41212003 (Nov 18, 2011)

i sell my body parts for this, so $200 matters a lot.


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

Wumpus said:


> his point is that if it works, why buy more stuff that you arent sure works?



What's he gonna do, buy one stick? OR lose 1/3rd the memory performance? He's gotta buy something.



kid41212003 said:


> i sell my body parts for this, so $200 matters a lot.




Perhaps P67/Z68 is for you then.  Socket 2011 is overkill for the average user.


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## Wumpus (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> What's he gonna do, buy one stick? OR lose 1/3rd the memory performance?



first, its 1/4 the performance. (but not even. see below)

secondly, the performance does not scale anywhere near 100%. single channel todual is quite large, dual to triple is semi-negligible (unless you run pi 32m all the time) and triple to quad is even less. It might be possible to even say that it is as near as makes no difference to negligible under regular usage conditions


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

Wumpus said:


> first, its 1/4 the performance. (but not even. see below)



Yeah, I mistyped. 


I don't care about performance. I care about warranty 3 years down the road. DIMMs cost OEMs like $12 to make. The rest pays for labour, profit and warranty claims.

If you are buying into SKT2011 it's for the best possible performance. The OP has two options to get that...either buy a new set, or find another single stick, which Corsair will not warranty to work with his kit together. Combined with other factors, it's no question. He can sell his old kit and make up the cost.


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## sneekypeet (Nov 18, 2011)

op has 6 X 2GB he needs to buy nothing


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> op has 6 X 2GB he needs to buy nothing



 then you'd be right. ;p hadn't considered that.:shadedshu 12GB is 3 sticks.


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## sneekypeet (Nov 18, 2011)

That was my take on it. If he has 4 sticks on hand I would tr it at least. If it fails, for sure, just go buy more then.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> What's he gonna do, buy one stick? OR lose 1/3rd the memory performance? He's gotta buy something.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Well i do use my computer for 3Ds Max so it will help there , I just sold my ram, cpu and board to a friend for $500 so should have the CPU by the end of next week .


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## cadaveca (Nov 18, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> That was my take on it. If he has 4 sticks on hand I would tr it at least. If it fails, for sure, just go buy more then.



If they aren't hypers. ASUS has a nice profile specific to those DIMMs, but I haven't seen anything spectaular yet with them. I am not too sure on how other OEMs ahve tuned BIOSes either...yet. The Hyper Era is over. Corsair just refunded me near full retail value for my 2133MHz 2GB sticks, even, so high-speed 2GB DIMMS are a thing of the past.


What we ARE seeing is many of these new 4GB DIMMs hitting very high speeds, better than 2GB DIMMs, even. As always, things are always the best right at launch, so if you're gonna buy, now's the time to do it. With IvyBridge so close in the future, I do not expect a single silicon revision now that the platform has launched, so what you get now, CPU-wise, is probably it.

BIOSes are going to be tuned for 4 and 8 gb DIMMs, too, from what I have been hearing, so if you're buying to overclock, 4GB sticks are it.



Live OR Die said:


> Well i do use my computer for 3Ds Max so it will help there , I just sold my ram, cpu and board to a friend for $500 so should have the CPU by the end of next week .



Pre-Orders only here. I need to be able to walk into the store and get one before I'll have one. Gonna be some interesting clocking.


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## LiveOrDie (Nov 18, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> If they aren't hypers. ASUS has a nice profile specific to those DIMMs, but I haven't seen anything spectaular yet with them. I am not too sure on how other OEMs ahve tuned BIOSes either...yet. The Hyper Era is over. Corsair just refunded me near full retail value for my 2133MHz 2GB sticks, even, so high-speed 2GB DIMMS are a thing of the past.
> 
> 
> What we ARE seeing is many of these new 4GB DIMMs hitting very high speeds, better than 2GB DIMMs, even. As always, things are always the best right at launch, so if you're gonna buy, now's the time to do it. With IvyBridge so close in the future, I do not expect a single silicon revision now that the platform has launched, so what you get now, CPU-wise, is probably it.
> ...



Well i can only hope they'll have stock left next week or ill be waiting as well


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