Question on RAM sticks

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Hello wise and knowledgeable people of TEST, I have a question on RAM and getting additional sticks...

My Motherboard has 4 slots for RAM, and already has two Kingston Genisis 1600c9dk2/8GB (read off the lable on the stick) which when I was given was informed were paired sticks - the system has 8 gb of ram so my assumption is they are two 4's making an 8.

I am interested in getting another pair but this model does not appear to be available anymore. Can I mix 'n match to me hearts content, or will I have to get a new set of quad sticks to get it up and running right?

Many thanks for your help and advice :)

 

[Kaz]

Anything that looks like this is highest priority!

 

[I_MIKE_I]

Hello wise and knowledgeable people of TEST, I have a question on RAM and getting additional sticks...

My Motherboard has 4 slots for RAM, and already has two Kingston Genisis 1600c9dk2/8GB (read off the lable on the stick) which when I was given was informed were paired sticks - the system has 8 gb of ram so my assumption is they are two 4's making an 8.

I am interested in getting another pair but this model does not appear to be available anymore. Can I mix 'n match to me hearts content, or will I have to get a new set of quad sticks to get it up and running right?

Many thanks for your help and advice :slight_smile:

Well, in theory, you could just adjust the latencys of them, but the question would be how far you'd have to go down for the sticks to match.

Ideally, there would be other Sticks from Kingston with similar latencys and voltage... which brings me to the point: can you make a picture of the label on one of the RAM sticks?

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Here you go:

 

[Printimus]

You can mix and match, but I would research which speeds of RAM your motherboard supports first.

 

[Sirus7264]

read this forum answer its the best way to describe it. like mike said it depends on your memory timming latency and voltage. if the speed of one set of ram is faster than the other with voltage latency and timming the higher speed ram will slow down to the slower set of ram. honestly its best to just use all of the same ram things can get complicated when playing around with memory timmings. how much ram are you looking for and what speed?

 

[Sirus7264]

forgot the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2778781/mixing-sets-ram-sizes-dual-channel.html

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Hi everyone, many thanks for all the help much appreciated.

The Board takes up to DDR3 1800 but i'd be looking to match the DDR3 1600 which is already there as I think this is limited by the CPU chipset...? I had no idea about latency and voltage so many thanks for the heads-up there.

Of the four slots, two are blue and two are black, so another assumption is that paired sticks have to be twins in those specific slots...? Dunno if that's true though.

EDIT - Ahhhh, reading that article it says about dual channels and downclocking faster junk! That totally answes the last of my questions.

Once again many thanks for all the help everyone, I think with a GPU update and a couple 'o more sticks i'll not have to build a new machine, just update the old one.

:)

 

[I_MIKE_I]

Here you go:
View attachment 6710

Awesome... why the fk would a brand like Kingston not write the damn speeds on the thing... -_-

Unless I'm mistaken, the Phenom II take 1333mhz by default on AM3 boards... so we neither know what speed/latency/voltage your RAM actually runs at nor what it could run at max.


So, that leaves the following:

1. Call/Mail Kingston and ask them for specifics. My guess is, that they run at 1,65v 1600mhz 9-9-9-27... there should be identical models with different heatsinks around.

2. Sell your Ram and buy a 16gb kit.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Awesome... why the fk would a brand like Kingston not write the damn speeds on the thing... -_-

Unless I'm mistaken, the Phenom II take 1333mhz by default on AM3 boards... so we neither know what speed/latency/voltage your RAM actually runs at nor what it could run at max.


So, that leaves the following:

1. Call/Mail Kingston and ask them for specifics. My guess is, that they run at 1,65v 1600mhz 9-9-9-27... there should be identical models with different heatsinks around.

2. Sell your Ram and buy a 16gb kit.

Found this data-sheet based on the model number gubbins http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9D3K2_8GX.pdf

"Each module kit has been tested to run at DDR3-1600 at a low latency timing of 9-9-9-27 at 1.65V" so great guess. I'll take a look at what is available now at those numbers.

 

[I_MIKE_I]

Found this data-sheet based on the model number gubbins http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/KHX1600C9D3K2_8GX.pdf

"Each module kit has been tested to run at DDR3-1600 at a low latency timing of 9-9-9-27 at 1.65V" so great guess. I'll take a look at what is available now at those numbers.

Nice, now that we know that much, can you check if it runs at those speeds?