Ram details needed

I am planning to buy a 8gb ram. i am confused if i have DDR3 or DDR3L .

I have MSI GT60 2PC( MSI Global GT60 2PC Dominator)

Specifications in MSI site shows that it has a DDR3L , but HWinfo reports as a DDR3

Also i am not sure where this stock ram is installed , if i buy a 8gb module and just insert it anywhere, it will become dual channel or i have to insert it near to the stock one ?

Or should i just get 2x4gb ?

Basically should i care about dual channel? or i can simply ignore it?

 

DDRx = standard 1.5v voltage

DDRxL = low (1.35v) voltage

DDRxU = ultra-low voltage (~1.25v)

The low and ultra-low voltage RAM modules work faster and produce less heat than their standard voltage counterparts. Its the reason many NBR aficionados undervolt their RAM.

The fact MSI states your system supports DDRxL means you can use either DDR or DDRxL RAM in your machine. I would recommend the DDRxL RAM modules if you can afford them.

And HWinfo does report your system as using DDRxL. The right-hand most graph in the table shows the voltage your RAM is running at. Your's is shown to be at 1.35v which indicates it is running at the low voltage.

Dual channel RAM is optional. It means two RAM modules running simultaneously in parallel. It lets twice the amount data flow between the CPU and RAM at any given time. In the real world, it usually gives no more than a 10% boost to speed.

My personal recommendation for you would to be to get 2x8GB RAM modules. Gives you plenty of memory and the dual channel boost.

 

Thanks for the clear explanation radji... looks like i should go dual channel if i can.. but my problem is..

MSI GT60 2PC has 4 ram slots, 2 slots near the CPU, GPU.. 2 slots can be reached only by removing the keyboard(which i dont really want to mess with).

So assuming MSI has used the slot under keyboard, now if i insert my new 8gb ram in the slot near CPU, GPU .. will it still be considered dual channel ?

 

Nope.

Each pair is part of the dual channel.

Assuming the current RAM module is installed in the DIMM under the keyboard, the two DIMMs under the keyboard is the primary pair. Therefore, you will need to install the RAM in those two DIMMs before the ones on the bottomside.

 

Thanks. thread can be closed now.

 

I don't know about that one....

 

What are you confused about?