x79 RAM... how fast? how much?

I'm a newbie, but planning on using the simple button-push OC on this motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131800

Three easy questions for the experienced expert:

1) Will I need to set anything manually if I get a quad channel kit higher than 1600? Say an 1866 kit? Is it even worth it? (I do 3d animation & video production) From what I understand 1600 is the plug & play standard for x79.

1600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231315
1866: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231456

2) I'm transitioning from a 32bit Windows system... should I snag 16 or 32gb? Don't know how much RAM is used in 64bit machines...

3) Is it important how the quantities are split up between sticks? 4x4gb vs. 2x8gb? I think you want to use all of your multi-channel slots right, so 4x4 is more efficient for x79?

I appreciate your input! Thanks everyone!

rranney said:

1) Will I need to set anything manually if I get a quad channel kit higher than 1600? Say an 1866 kit? Is it even worth it? (I do 3d animation & video production) From what I understand 1600 is the plug & play standard for x79.

Click to expand...

You should set your memory speed, timings and voltage manually regardless. It's relatively straightforward and the settings are easy to find. If you have trouble we can help. IMHO, RAM voltage, speed and timings always need to be manually set to avoid any potential issues.

Re: Speed, I ran comparisons of DDR3-1600 / 9-9-9-24 vs. DDR3-2133 / 9-11-9-28 in a recent G.Skill quad channel RAM review if you're curious. Long story short - 1600 is fine as long as you have decent timings. Higher is really only necessary for benchmarking.

rranney said:

2) I'm transitioning from a 32bit Windows system... should I snag 16 or 32gb? Don't know how much RAM is used in 64bit machines...

Click to expand...

32bit is limited to 4GB of usable memory addressing space total. 64GB is virtually unlimited. Get whatever size you need for what you use your PC to do. If you get a 16GB quad channel kit, you'll have more RAM than most people will ever use.

rranney said:

3) Is it important how the quantities are split up between sticks? 4x4gb vs. 2x8gb? I think you want to use all of your multi-channel slots right, so 4x4 is more efficient for x79?

Click to expand...

Get 4x4G. Filling up all RAM slots stresses the memory controller unecessarily, especially considering how far down 4G sticks have come.

Thank you hokiealumnus! That was very helpful! The review article painted the picture clearly for me as well!

So 4x4gb quad-channel Gskill it is! 16gigs here I come!

One last thing: is it worth playing around with the RAM caching/RAM disk capability? Does anyone have experience with this: