Quick RAM question

C

CLKeenan

Banned
Jun 24, 2006
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Boston, MA
I had 4x 2gb of RAM installed in my desktop. Got a good deal on some 2x 8gb sticks. I have 4 slots on my mobo. Should I leave 2 of the 2gb sticks in there for a total of 20gb of RAM or will the mismatched sticks be a problem?
 


CLKeenan said:
I had 4x 2gb of RAM installed in my desktop. Got a good deal on some 2x 8gb sticks. I have 4 slots on my mobo. Should I leave 2 of the 2gb sticks in there for a total of 20gb of RAM or will the mismatched sticks be a problem?
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My current desktop has them mismatched and I don't really see no problem. Unless your desktop has some extremely outdated RAM chips then I think you should be fine.
 
More RAM is not always going to give you better performance- it depends on what you use it for. I still run Socket A boards with 2GB PC3200; this particular one, I can add 1GB, but doing so will cause the BIOS to run them at PC2700, and I didn't find it to be a good tradeoff.

The only real way to know is to test with both configurations. If they have different SPD timings, you might have to tweak the timings manually in the BIOS, if you can. BIOS will often default all the timings to whatever the SPD timings are in a particular slot.
 
You'll be good. Just remember that the frequency will downclock to the lowest you have (not that RAM frequency is as big a deal as the manufacturers make out, I'd definitely go with the extra sticks, even if they're much lower frequency)
 
Thanks for the info. Gonna spend 30 minutes trying all 3 combos (4x2, 2x8, and 2x8 + 2x2) and running some performance tests on them. It's a Dell XPS 8300 (got a super good deal on it... don't hate) so I don't think I'll have many options with the bios.
 
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