Counter point to the mismatched modules point (I’m currently running 24GB in my own rig, so I did think of that possibility): I am pretty confident that there aren’t any cars running around with 5 ram slots. You could just sum the two 4 sticks to one 8 stick and throw it in a common dual channel four slot board, but then you’re mixing capacities on each channel, which either causes issues or just doesn’t work (it’s been a minute since I’ve done it). Also, from a manufacturing standpoint, having to install/manage four completely different items doesn’t scale as easily as just having one. In the volume that they’re buying, I’d bet that the cost savings from using smaller sticks would be pretty minimized by the extra cost/complexity of setting up processes for multiple items.
I’m going to look into the weird DIMM sizes that you mentioned. I’ve never seen them, so it might just be a gap in knowledge on my part.
Both very good points.
Counter point to the mismatched modules point (I’m currently running 24GB in my own rig, so I did think of that possibility): I am pretty confident that there aren’t any cars running around with 5 ram slots. You could just sum the two 4 sticks to one 8 stick and throw it in a common dual channel four slot board, but then you’re mixing capacities on each channel, which either causes issues or just doesn’t work (it’s been a minute since I’ve done it). Also, from a manufacturing standpoint, having to install/manage four completely different items doesn’t scale as easily as just having one. In the volume that they’re buying, I’d bet that the cost savings from using smaller sticks would be pretty minimized by the extra cost/complexity of setting up processes for multiple items.
I’m going to look into the weird DIMM sizes that you mentioned. I’ve never seen them, so it might just be a gap in knowledge on my part.