Quick RAM Upgrade Question

Hi Britton30,

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner...A0F0B031D926C3

Here is my scan results on this old computer, it does show the amount installed and the maximun amount I can install.

Britton30 said:

Your board will support up to 16GB, 4GB per slot. The scanner only reads what you currently have, not upgrade options.

Mixing brands and different RAM can possibly make your system unstable or perform badly. I would suggest a 16GB kit.

Yeah a 16GB kit is what I should get, but again since I already have two 2GB sticks buying a complete 16GB kit would make the sticks I have now go to waste.

I'm trying to find a way to utilize what I have already and still get a good upgrade out of it. 12GB right now is preferred, but if that will definitely make my system unstable then I guess I will just get two more 2GB sticks for a total of 8.

Anyway I can figure this out without having to call anybody up?

You will never know with absolute certainty until you try it, but memory mismatch issues are less common today than years ago. I guess the manufacturers are more likely to adhere to standards and quality control.

I doubt if you will have stability issues by adding two 4 GB sticks to your existing two 2 GB sticks IF you match the specs as much as possible, particularly regarding voltage. Make sure you get a high quality brand. Most likely you need non-ECC.

I'd just input the motherboard model number into the Crucial configurator (rather than use the scanner) and trust the output. Buy the cheapest pair of 4 GB sticks it comes up with, if the voltage matches your current two sticks.

If the speeds on the new sticks differ from the speeds of the old sticks, your PC may default to the lower speed.

obidon said:

Britton30 said:

Your board will support up to 16GB, 4GB per slot. The scanner only reads what you currently have, not upgrade options.

Mixing brands and different RAM can possibly make your system unstable or perform badly. I would suggest a 16GB kit.

Yeah a 16GB kit is what I should get, but again since I already have two 2GB sticks buying a complete 16GB kit would make the sticks I have now go to waste.

I'm trying to find a way to utilize what I have already and still get a good upgrade out of it. 12GB right now is preferred, but if that will definitely make my system unstable then I guess I will just get two more 2GB sticks for a total of 8.

Anyway I can figure this out without having to call anybody up?

The Crucial upgrade page for your motherboard looks a little odd. It states that the board supports 16GB, but also says that the maximum DIMM size is 2GB. (Nothing to do with the scanner.)

However, the memory support list:

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/prod...px?pid=3316#sp

includes 4GB DIMMs, which is consistent with the 16GB max. (Unfortunately, the list doesn't say anything about compatibility with 4 slots.)

You may be able to get old and new RAM to play well together by setting the memory frequency, timings, and voltage manually in your BIOS setup. It may not matter whether the new RAM is 2X2 or 2X4 GB. If you're not willing to take a risk that it won't work, use 4 new ones. You'd be discarding about $20-25 worth of RAM, at current prices.

I hate to be argumentative, but, you can mix RAM. As long as you have them in the proper channels, all that will happen is that the system will default to the lower speed of the two sets. The reality is that any memory can play with any memory. Memory doesn't have feelings or emotions...it does what you tell it to do, and will run as long as you tell it to do the right thing. You will likely need to manually set timings,voltages and frequency for memory and the CPU, but it shouldn't be a problem.

What you will need to do is go into the BIOS and write down all of the settings for the memory you currently have. You need the timings, voltages, and the frequency of the memory and CPU. Once you have that, pull the old set out, put the new set in, and match the settings on the new set to what the old set is. Once you have done so, put the old set in and reboot. You can run Prime95 to test stability, but in my experience, it won't be an issue.

Well the deed is done. Pretty sure it shouldn't have issues since the voltages speed and latency seem to be pretty much the same. As long as I know I can get it to work (with some BIOS tweaking) and not have to RMA it I'm fine with that.

This is the pair that I ordered: http://tiny.cc/8p6abw

And this is the pair I currently have: http://tiny.cc/196abw

Hopefully it will just work out of the box as soon as I put the modules in.

Thanks for the help everyone, I'll keep you updated as to whether it works or not.

Please let us know when it arrives. I highly encourage you to do hardware test. It may take a day or two out of your life n ow but its much better than struggling to understand why you blue-screen or crash while gaming or doing any task. It till take long to figuere out what was the root of problem.... later on. J strongly urge hardware testing.

Alright I will definitely keep that in mind. Thanks for the info.