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When I bought my PC back in 2010, motherboards that supported triple-channel DDR3 were everywhere. Thinking that it would be the standard by the time I upgraded, I made sure to get a triple-channel board with 3 2GB sticks.

So now I'm thinking about upgrading and 3/6 of my DIMM slots are empty, but it seems like triple-channel memory has fallen out of vogue and 3-packs of sticks for triple-channel setups are hard to come by.

So what are my options for upgrading? Should I buy a 2-pack set of DDR3 RAM and fill 5/6 of my slots? Can I buy some random single memory DDR3 memory stick to fill the last empty slot after that? Or do I have to buy a 3 pack meant for triple-channel setups? Is there anything I have to be careful of in this situation?

MrKatSwordfish
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When it comes to DDR sticks, there's no meaningful difference between the singe, dual, or triple channel sets you can buy. A matched set is simply two or three single sticks from the same production run all in one package, maybe at a slightly better price.

As for upgrading, you're best off making sure all the DDR sticks in a particular channel are the same type. So, find a good deal on a single stick you like, and buy three of them. Leaving a slot empty is fine also. You wind up getting a minor performance hit, but it likely will only be noticeable in benchmarks anyway.

Zel
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  • Thanks Zel. When you say "same type" do you mean capacity, speed, or both? Also, i'm assuming there's no issue with mixing different brands.. – MrKatSwordfish Nov 28 '15 at 00:02
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    I mean both, within a particular channel. I would prefer to use the same brand too just to ensure the speeds and capacities are the same, but it's not actually necessary. If you use mismatched speeds and timings, all memory on the channel will just run at the speed of the slowest. If you use mismatched capacity, the memory is likely to run in single-channel mode which just costs you some speed in a different way. Again, it's hard to even notice the lost speed outside of benchmarks anyways. – Zel Nov 29 '15 at 09:56