Which is better: Triple Channel vs 2xDual Channel Memory

I'm thinking about upgrading my RAM to this: Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics Extreme Low Voltage 30nm SODIMM 8 Dual Channel Kit DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM MV-3T4G3D/US: Electronics
I'd probably get 2 and use all 4 of my slots, but I was wondering if it would work better if I got a triple channel memory kit and just left one slot empty. Would 3 sticks of triple channel RAM (3x4gb) be faster/better than 4 sticks of dual channel RAM(4x4gb)?

Also, is that RAM good? The reviews are really good and I've heard it's really oveclockable.

 

Triple channel memory is for desktops and those Clevo notebooks that use desktop CPUs.

 

Triple and dual channel is a property of the memory controller and not the RAM you purchase. The triple channel kits are only called that because they're bundled in packs of three sticks which usually suits the needs of consumers with processors that support triple channel configurations.

Multi-channel also leads to almost no gains in performance (i.e. will only see the difference in benchmark applications).
Multi-channel memory architecture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Buy RAM with capacity in mind. Not speed (its fast enough, other components are the bottlenecks), not low latency (very little difference in performance), or anything else. Just plain raw capacity is what matters now.

 

That's awesome that there are Clevos with desktop CPUs! I didn't know anyone did that.

Anyway, is that RAM good(the one I posted in the first post)? Also, my current config is 4x2GB, so if I only bought one of these sets (my config would be 2x2GB and 2x4GB), would that be bad? Like is it bad to mix RAM? Is it better to have all 4 slots using the same RAM (if so, I'd be 2 kits of 2x4GB).

 

it's marketing trick they are not better at all ,maybe 1%

 

As stated there is nothing along the lines of dual, triple of quad channel memory. It's basically a marketing term provided to the public so that each and every customer thinks it's something special when in fact it just means 2, 3 or 4 (sometimes more) DIMM's and SODIMM's (depending whether desktop or laptop).

Unless a laptop uses a desktop Intel i7 series processor (depends on the exact model) then all laptops as of February 2012 are dual channel laptops. You can either run a single SODIMM in them for single channel operation or two SODIMM's for dual channel operation. If you run a 3rd SODIMM in them then you break dual channel mode from being synchronous to asynchronous. Essentially the remainder part of your RAM will run in single whereas that base amount will run in dual channel.

Low voltage DDR3 means 1.35 and 1.25V SODIMM's and DIMM's. Basically they use less energy and produce less heat due to a smaller manufacturing process but this doesn't mean they'll necessarily overclock higher. If you want to overclock your best bet (providing your laptop has the necessary BIOS settings) to buy DDR3 that's already binned above JEDEC spec hence above PC3-12800.

 

Argh. All I could find was the standard tests on this site
http://www.overclockers.com/gskill-ripjaws-z-ddr3-2133-quad-channel-ram

 

What...?

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They are testing dual vs triple vs quad

 

2 sticks is best in the M17x R3. The Command Rate is 1T, any more and that goes up to 2T which is slower.

 

For gaming, unless it's IGP, single channel vs. dual channel doesn't matter. See this testing I did (look for the dark blue bar) with single channel vs multi-channel and even 1066 vs 1600 RAM. For day to day stuff, it will hardly matter either: http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...amd-radeon-hd-6750m-benchmarking-results.html