I'm building a new PC with a 9800x3D this Black Friday, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by the skyrocketing RAM prices. I don't really need 64GB right now, but I want to future-proof my setup. Is there a downside to getting a single 32GB stick now and picking up a second one later, say in six months to a year, when hopefully prices will be more reasonable? I plan to ensure the new stick matches the original as closely as possible.
4 Answers
I'd recommend getting a 2x32GB kit and splitting it with a friend. That way, each of you can buy the other's stick later when you’ve both decided to upgrade, and you’ll have a matched pair! It’s a smart way to save some cash and make sure you get good performance down the line.
The whole matching sticks thing really only comes into play if you're aiming to use XMP or EXPO profiles. You can manually set lower settings for a second module later if they aren't an exact match. I have 2x8GB in my setup with slightly different specs, and they work just fine after a little tweaking. It's all about how much effort you want to put into adjusting settings later!
Honestly, a single 16GB stick can serve you just fine for gaming unless you're also doing heavy streaming or editing. If gaming's your main focus, 16GB is usually more than enough.
You'll be running in single-channel mode with just one stick, which is slower than dual-channel, but the performance drop might not be huge—especially with an X3D CPU. Just keep in mind that finding an identical stick later could be tricky since RAM revisions can change. If you have access to an Amazon credit card, you might consider getting a 64GB kit with 0% APR financing to avoid the price spike now. But if you don’t actually need 64GB, just go for a 32GB kit instead!
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