Upgrading from 4gb Ram to 8Gb - which Ram?

musicformedia

Hi guys,

Thinking on upgrading my PC from 4gb ram to 8gb. Currently have two sticks of this:

OCZ Gold 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15

Do I just pick any PC6400 RAM that comes in 2gb sticks or do I have to match the CL5 -5-5-15 part aswell?

Cheers

Emmett

DECEiFER

musicformedia wrote: »

Hi guys,

Thinking on upgrading my PC from 4gb ram to 8gb. Currently have two sticks of this:

OCZ Gold 2048MB PC6400 XTC, CL5-5-5-15

Do I just pick any PC6400 RAM that comes in 2gb sticks or do I have to match the CL5 -5-5-15 part aswell?

Cheers

Emmett

No, not at all, you need to match what your motherboard can support. Some boards support multiple types, but you know it supports PC26400/DDR2-800 RAM so go ahead and get that type again. You could go one step further and go your motherboard's manufacturer's page and check to see what RAM has been confirmed as tested. ASUS calls this the QVL (Quality Vendor List), for example, and each motherboard has its own list that can be downloaded on the product's download page. If you can't find RAM that is on the list, it doesn't mean it won't work, it's just that it's not tested and confirmed to work for certain because even if you get the right type of RAM, because on some occasions some RAM models can be a bad match for the motherboard.

On the flip side, some RAM manufactures like Corsair test their RAM on motherboards and list what boards are compatible with each RAM model, so you can look it up that way if your RAM manufacturer of choice does this.

musicformedia

Great thanks - will probably go for this so:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142403

Thanks for the help

DECEiFER

musicformedia wrote: »

Great thanks - will probably go for this so:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142403

Thanks for the help

Looks good, but there are a few things I did neglect to mention yesterday. I shouldn't have left any of this out, I apologize.

You could possibly try to get sticks that are identical to the ones you have installed. You don't need to but it's more efficient when you do have matching sticks all around and usually less can go wrong too, especially if you don't use matching pairs in all the slots and the voltage requirements are different for each pair (the one you're planning on buying is rated at 1.8v, but I've had PC26400 RAM that's rated at 1.9v in the past, for example) and/or the timings are different.

You also asked if you needed the same timings (CL5-5-5-15). The answer to that is no, but always remember that your RAM will only work as fast as your slowest stick. In some instances, your Northbridge might be very obtuse about that and you will fail any memtest application, on top of seeing erratic errors cropping up everywhere. A PC with troubled RAM is like a woman on her...yeah well, I might get in trouble if I complete that sentence. :P

To fix this problem, you can often lob the slower sticks (in this case, those Crucial ones you're thinking of buying) into the first channel (slots 1 and 3 - where the slot colors match) and the faster stuff into the second channel (slots 2 and 4). Then it would be to your advantage to set the timings manually in the BIOS. Check the label on the new stuff to see what those timings are and input the values into the BIOS manually. If it's ever going to work should there be a problem, this is the way to do it. You might also have to increase the voltage, but let's not go into that now. After you're all done with installing and configuring your new sticks, run memtest86+ even if it seems like there's no trouble, do it when you've got the time. You can leave it run on its own but it takes a while, so whenever you don't need the PC.

Again, ideally you could save hassle and increase stability among other things by getting identical sticks to what you own. If that's not possible, then you could try for sticks rated at CL5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v. I've mixed RAM with different timings in the past (going from 1GB to 2GB in a LGA-775 Pentium 4 PC) and had trouble initially, and overcoming that trouble involved taking all those steps above (except the voltage - it wasn't necessary). That PC is still churning away today, over 3 years since the upgrade and over 5 years since the original purchase.

musicformedia

Wow great, thanks for all of the info. Appreciate it. Might look into purchasing some new RAM in the coming weeks and will bare all of this in mind. Thanks again

DECEiFER

musicformedia wrote: »

Wow great, thanks for all of the info. Appreciate it. Might look into purchasing some new RAM in the coming weeks and will bare all of this in mind. Thanks again

Cool. Let us know how it all goes!

musicformedia

I'm having a problem trying to find ram that matches the stuff I currently have. Could you help me find some on ebuyer.com?

DECEiFER

musicformedia wrote: »

I'm having a problem trying to find ram that matches the stuff I currently have. Could you help me find some on ebuyer.com?

Anything at all here should do.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=2&ca630=4GB%20-%202x2GB%20Kit&store=2&cat=3&subcat=2052&sort=pricelow&limit=10

Check your motherboard's product page for some form of QVL and see if you can find anything that's tested as good. Again, it's not always necessary, just a precaution.

Those sticks have a slightly faster timings that your current ones. That being the case, put the slower sticks in the first DIMM channel (usually slots 1 and 3 in this case).