G.Skill 2x8GB One Faulty Stick, Matched Pair Necessary?

I recently purchased brand new G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL off of eBay. It turns out that after a couple weeks I was getting some BSOD's so I ran memtest on both modules and got errors. Then I ran each module in each 4 of my DIMM slots on my mobo to test the DIMM slots and the RAM.

Turns out that one stick is faulty out of the pair. I called G.Skill and they said you can RMA both or one of the sticks, but they recommend returning both. The one 8GB is working fine in my PC right now and passed 13 hours on memtest.

Now here is where I need help, I am at a university/college and I only have my desktop (hate laptops) to work on and it is critical for me to access it. Here are my options:

1. Buy a cheap 2/3/4GB stick for a temporary replacement, return to G.Skill and await new RAM.
2. Buy new 16GB sticks and then once I receive them return the ones I have right now to eBay.
3. Keep 1 8GB stick and return the other to G.Skill and then complete the 16GB set.

In each case I need a working computer, I am leaning towards the 3rd option because I got these two sticks new for $63 which is a steal, so if I could just RMA one and get a new one for free that would be cool. Only problem is I know the thing about matched sets, but is it really that a big deal, will I run into problems? I mean the timings and model are all the same..

Any input is appreciated, thanks!

EDIT: 16GB is definitely overkill for me, so I wouldn't mind running 1 8GB stick for a while, I barely breach 7GB of usage on my HTPC machine. I only bought 16GB because of the low price.

 

I would personally recommend waiting for G.Skill to replace your dead stick whilst keeping the second. Matched pairs are recommended but are only really necessary if you overclock heavily. Otherwise just match speed and size in pairs and make sure you use the correct paired slots on the motherboards.