Memory Compatibility

[Altamira]

Hi,

My motherboard is a gigabyte ph67-ud3-b3
I Have 2 sticks (2x4Gb) of Gskill Sniper DDR3 1333Mhz CAS9 (9-9-9-24).
I want to add 2 more sticks (2x4gb) to have a total of 16Gb.
My doubt is do i have to buy the same brand? Or can i choose another one taking into account i have to respect the Latency and speed?
Im having hard time finding Gskill Sniper DDR3 1333 (2x4gb) and when i can find they are a bit expensive, compared to other brands.
Thanks

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Ram should be bought in the following order:
a) exact same brand/SKU
b) exact same stats, diff brand (dubious)
c) scrap it all, buy the amount you need of $otherbrand, sell old stuff

 

[Altamira]

I mean i can find 2x4Gb (8Gb) Gskill Sniper DDR3 1333Mhz for 61 US Dollars and 8x8Gb (16Gb) Gskill Ripjaws DDR3 1333Mhz for 89 US Dollars.
So i can save almost 30 Dollars.

 

[Elixer]

As was mentioned above, it is best to match everything possible with the old RAM.
If that isn't an option, it may / may not work.

It is also less stress on the memory controller if you only use 2 DIMMs, so it is better to have 2x8GB vs 4x4GB for 16GB. Of course, this advice is for Dual Channel, if you have higher, then you want more DIMMs.

 

[Altamira]

Thank you both. The reason why i though about expanding to 16Gb its because i´ve noticed that only running the web browser with like 9 tabs opened (no video streaming) in Windows 10 64bit around 70% of memory is beeing used. Im using Epic browser by the way. Is this normal? I mean if start to add more tasks it rapidly goes up. Is this a normal behaviour? If i open Task manager i see a lot of memory beeing used by the web browser. Im also guiding myself with MooO system monitor.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Thank you both. The reason why i though about expanding to 16Gb its because i´ve noticed that only running the web browser with like 9 tabs opened (no video streaming) in Windows 10 64bit around 70% of memory is beeing used. Im using Epic browser by the way. Is this normal? I mean if start to add more tasks it rapidly goes up. Is this a normal behaviour? If i open Task manager i see a lot of memory beeing used by the web browser. Im also guiding myself with MooO system monitor.

Bearing in mind there's nothing specifically wrong with having your memory in-use (that's what it's there for after all), 8GB would be on the slim side for a new system. It should be perfectly fine at this point however, and 12GBish usage for win10+browser sounds a *little* high. It might be worth testing with chrome or IE or something to see what usage you get with other browsers, if only to isolate something Epic is doing. Chrome has a tendency to cache stuff you've closed in-memory (so it's faster if you open them again later), and Epic may do that too... so you might actually have 25 pages open but not realize it.

Having said all this, I'd honestly stick with what I had unless I found a great deal on some old memory (like less than $20) and just pocket it for a future system refresh or something.

 

[Valantar]

Once upon a time I upgraded my socket 775 system from 2x2GB DDR2 (Corsair Dominator somethingorother 1066mhz) with a seemingly identical 2x2GB kit. Same maker, same model, same CL, same SKU#. But it refused to boot half the time, and when it did I had a h*ll of a time with instability.

Turned out the specs below CAS weren't identical. Once I adjusted the fastest kit to match the rated values of the slowest kit, it's been running like clockwork.

On the other hand, I've been running various mismatched RAM sticks (different capacities, brands, models, RAM chip makers) in various laptops throughout the years, with absolutely 0 issues. Most have been scavenged from various scrapped laptops, dumpster diving and such. Even combined DDR3-1333 with 1600 once, BIOS adjusted everything automagically. YMMV. If you're running stock/JEDEC speeds with nothing OC'd, you'll most likely be okay as long as the specs match. But again, YMMV.