The cheapest 16GB DDR3 kits made from two 8GB sticks currently cost about £65 ($90, AU$130), but the most expensive can cost more than £200 ($279, AU$400). The variety of different specifications means that prices vary wildly.

It's possible to run memory in single-channel mode, but there'll be a performance decrease if you run a single stick of memory rather than two or four. No matter which memory you buy, you'll have to deal with channels.ĭual-and quad-channel setups are the most popular and improve performance by allowing motherboards to use multiple channels to send and receive data simultaneously, therefore improving bandwidth. This indicates latency, and lower is better. Nevertheless, if you'd like to keep an eye out, look for CAS ratings. That's a tiny margin, and DDR4 negates this disadvantage with its generally higher clock speeds. Newer DDR4 2,133MHz memory has a latency rating of CL15, which means it'll take 14.06ns to perform a read, while DDR3 1,600MHz memory reads at 13.75ns. DDR4, however, does have a downside – increased latency (the time it might take to perform a task).