Adding RAM slots to motherboard?

[Mitko_DSV]

So back in May 2012 I bought a prebuilt Acer Aspire M1930 (didn't know better back then). And over the years I have upgraded it. I'm happy with how it works except that I sometimes run out of RAM. So the solution is simple - buy more RAM. Right? Well two 8GB sticks of DDR3 RAM are really expensive for me. The motherboard (Acer IPISB-VR Rev 1.01) has 2 RAM slots and a place for 2 more. After searching I found out that this motherboard (exact same model and everything) also came with 4 installed RAM slots.

This is how my motherboard looks like at the moment:

And this is one I found with 4 slots:

 

So if I but a cheap motherboard, desolder it's slots and solder them to my motherboard, will it work? I could get two 4GB sticks of RAM way cheaper than two 8GB sticks (like 2 or 3 times cheaper!). Is it even worth trying? I think it would work, but I'm not sure, so I'm asking for others' opinions.

[LukeSavenije]

3 minutes ago, Mitko_DSV said:

Is it even worth trying?

no

 

that's where it should end. just get a new motherboard then...

[Mira Yurizaki]

You'd also need to modify BIOS. The one on the board was likely designed to only care about two memory slots.

[Mitko_DSV]

7 hours ago, LukeSavenije said:

that's where it should end. just get a new motherboard then...

It's near imposible to find a new (errr.. second hand) moterboard for LGA1155 and mATX for a decent price. And if I had more money I woudn't be thinking about soldering more slots to the moterboard. 

 

7 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

You'd also need to modify BIOS. The one on the board was likely designed to only care about two memory slots.

Well there's only one version of the BIOS and it is for both the 2 and 4 RAM slot boards. Well technically there are 3 versions  but they are for both, no difference.

 

Well actually is there a possibility to harm the moterboard my soldering more slots?  I know how to solder them in theory and will practice beforhand on a test board, I also have sufficient equipment to do it.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Mitko_DSV said:

Well there's only one version of the BIOS and it is for both the 2 and 4 RAM slot boards. Well technically there are 3 versions  but they are for both, no difference.

 

Well actually is there a possibility to harm the moterboard my soldering more slots?  I know how to solder them in theory and will practice beforhand on a test board, I also have sufficient equipment to do it.

Working with a hot iron carries risk of damaging the board. But if you do it right then no, there's no risk.

[badreg]

The traces are there, so I am perplexed why there is a version with this board that only has two slots. I guess Acer really wanted to save their pennies.

 

@Mitko_DSV In your very specific case, soldering new slots has a decent chance of working, but you also run a decent risk of damaging your hardware. It doesn't sound like you can afford to lose this board, so 2x8GB sticks are probably the cheaper option at the end of the day.

[alex75871]

47 minutes ago, badreg said:

The traces are there, so I am perplexed why there is a version with this board that only has two slots. I guess Acer really wanted to save their pennies.

 

@Mitko_DSV In your very specific case, soldering new slots has a decent chance of working, but you also run a decent risk of damaging your hardware. It doesn't sound like you can afford to lose this board, so 2x8GB sticks are probably the cheaper option at the end of the day.

The only reason for having 2 memory slots on a motherboard capable of supporting 4 is market segmentation...

[Mitko_DSV]

14 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Working with a hot iron carries risk of damaging the board. But if you do it right then no, there's no risk.

Well I'm going to solder using this

Not exactly the same as mine, but you get the idea. I've used this to solder laptop GPUs and CPUs, I've also used it to unglue smartphone screens, etc.

 

12 hours ago, badreg said:

It doesn't sound like you can afford to lose this board, so 2x8GB sticks are probably the cheaper option at the end of the day.

Well this board is in my main PC, so I don't want to lose it. Actually buying a board for the slots and 2x4GB sticks is nearly 2 times cheaper than 2x8GB sticks alone. But I don't know if the risk justifies the price difference. Well I'm not in a hurry to upgrade the RAM, so I'll see if I can get some cheaper 8GB sticks, I'll just have to be patient.

 

11 hours ago, alex75871 said:

The only reason for having 2 memory slots on a motherboard capable of supporting 4 is market segmentation...

I guess you're right. When I bought the PC it came with a Celeron G530. I think that the ones with Core i5 and Core i7 had the 4 slots.

[maartendc]

22 hours ago, Mitko_DSV said:

So back in May 2012 I bought a prebuilt Acer Aspire M1930 (didn't know better back then). And over the years I have upgraded it. I'm happy with how it works except that I sometimes run out of RAM. So the solution is simple - buy more RAM. Right? Well two 8GB sticks of DDR3 RAM are really expensive for me. The motherboard (Acer IPISB-VR Rev 1.01) has 2 RAM slots and a place for 2 more. After searching I found out that this motherboard (exact same model and everything) also came with 4 installed RAM slots.

This is how my motherboard looks like at the moment:

And this is one I found with 4 slots:

 

So if I but a cheap motherboard, desolder it's slots and solder them to my motherboard, will it work? I could get two 4GB sticks of RAM way cheaper than two 8GB sticks (like 2 or 3 times cheaper!). Is it even worth trying? I think it would work, but I'm not sure, so I'm asking for others' opinions.

Dude, it will most definitely not work.

 

First of all, you are spending money getting a "cheap motherboard" to desolder ram slots off of, and then soldering them back onto this other cheap old motherboard (which will never work) in the hopes of saving a little bit of money on RAM? This is insane.

 

Reasons why this is a dumb idea:

- You don't even know if the current motherboard has the traces from those theoretical "extra ram slots" to the CPU, etc. All that stuff might not even be connected. So impossible.

- It seems impossible to get this soldered correctly, there are like 60+ connections per slot. Only a machine can do this.

- You are likely to break the current motherboard in the process, now you are out more money.

- You are wasting money on the "donor" motherboard.

- The BIOS wont recognize the 2 extra ram slots even if you manage to solder it (which you wont).

 

Just save up and buy the ram you need, or save up to replace the whole motherboard.

[SimplyChunk]

I'm with @maartendc  I've never understood people that in the first post say

 

Quote

I don't have the moneys for such expensive things

Then 4 posts down say

 

Quote

I'm not in any rush to upgrade

It's baffling.  If you don't have the moneys but aren't in a rush.  Just toss a few bucks aside each week.  It'll soon add up  

[Mitko_DSV]

@maartendc Umm, did you read the other posts, besides the first one? It just seem like you didn't.

Well I know how to solder it, and I have a bunch of old motherboards to practice if I need to. So about the prices. If I buy a motherboard for the slots, it'll be one that costs no more than $20, a motherboard for my PC is like $80 (these are second hand prices). 2 x 4GB sticks cost about $40, and 2x8GB sticks cost between $140 and $200 (again only second hand). That's just how the prices in Bulgaria are .

 

18 minutes ago, YouSirAreADudeSir said:

It's baffling.  If you don't have the moneys but aren't in a rush.  Just toss a few bucks aside each week.  It'll soon add up  

Well I may have said it wrong. It's not that I don't have the money, it's that I don't want to spend so much . I'm just looking at different options with different prices, for now the 8GB of RAM I have is enough, but I may need more RAM for university projects in the future. And I just wanted to know what to do when the time for a RAM upgrade comes. I recently bought a new screen for my main laptop with a higher resolution and it cost about as much as 2x8GB sticks of RAM. And I'm not looking forward to spending more money at the moment. Also I'm working on my second car and I need money for that aswell. Actually I've spent more money for my PCs and laptops than I have for both of my cars combined . And I have no job, I'm a student, the only money I get from my parents are for fuel for my car, so I can get to university, no way I can save money on fuel (I've tried).

[maartendc]

4 minutes ago, Mitko_DSV said:

@maartendc Umm, did you read the other posts, besides the first one? It just seem like you didn't.

Well I know how to solder it, and I have a bunch of old motherboards to practice if I need to. So about the prices. If I buy a motherboard for the slots, it'll be one that costs no more than $20, a motherboard for my PC is like $80 (these are second hand prices). 2 x 4GB sticks cost about $40, and 2x8GB sticks cost between $140 and $200 (again only second hand). That's just how the prices in Bulgaria are .

I did read them. Look, my advice is the same: it is a dumb idea.

 

But you seem to have your mind made up, so why are you asking for advice then? Everybody says don't do it, and you're like: nono I can do it.

 

I don't care, it is not my PC. Go nuts with that soldering iron.

 

If I were you, I would buy a new motherboard with 4 ram slots for $80 and the 2x4 GB extra sticks for $40 and it would still be cheaper than 2x8 GB sticks. You can always sell your existing motherboard and make some of the money back.

[Mitko_DSV]

6 minutes ago, maartendc said:

I did read them. Look, my advice is the same: it is a dumb idea.

 

But you seem to have your mind made up, so why are you asking for advice then? Everybody says don't do it, and you're like: nono I can do it.

 

I don't care, it is not my PC. Go nuts with that soldering iron.

 

If I were you, I would buy a new motherboard with 4 ram slots for $80 and the 2x4 GB extra sticks for $40 and it would still be cheaper than 2x8 GB sticks. You can always sell your existing motherboard and make some of the money back.

Well I was about to say that I can't find a mATX motherboard with 4 slots, but then I found a bunch of them . As it turns out there are a lot more motherboars since I last checked. Will check them out and see what comes out of it.

[Bravo1cc]

53 minutes ago, Mitko_DSV said:

Well I was about to say that I can't find a mATX motherboard with 4 slots, but then I found a bunch of them . As it turns out there are a lot more motherboars since I last checked. Will check them out and see what comes out of it.

Not sure you will be successful but good luck and let us all know how you get on.

[Quadriplegic]

Just get a 2nd hand kit from ebay or buy new from Aliexpress, not worth the trouble. 


Are you really sure that it is DDR3 RAM that costs nearly $200 for 16GB kit?
https://www.altech.bg/en/product/38045

[Mitko_DSV]

22 hours ago, Quadriplegic said:

Just get a 2nd hand kit from ebay or buy new from Aliexpress, not worth the trouble. 


Are you really sure that it is DDR3 RAM that costs nearly $200 for 16GB kit?
https://www.altech.bg/en/product/38045

Well that is 189BGN and the cheapest I saw was 175BGN. There were second hand 2x8GB kits for 300BGN. (I just assumed the prices in $, not very accurately).

 

22 hours ago, Bravo1cc said:

Not sure you will be successful but good luck and let us all know how you get on.

Thanks. Will post when there's something new.

[Mitko_DSV]

@Mira Yurizaki @badreg @alex75871 @maartendc @YouSirAreADudeSir @Bravo1cc @Quadriplegic

 

Well I bought a $10 motherboard for the slots. A few days later I found a 16GB (2x8) DDR3 kit for about $80 and bought it. Today it arrived and it's already in my PC. And the motherboard I bought? Well it's HP IPISB-CH2, supports Sandy Bridge, has 4 RAM slots and is dead (I knew that when I bought it). So since now I have an i5 2320, 8GB DDR3, a case, a PSU and a few HDDs. I decided to try and fix this motherboard and use it to upgrade my secondary PC. Will see how it goes.