Best way to upgrade my memory

[karaggeorge]

Hello!

 

This is my first post at this forum. I am not very knowledgeable around hardware, so I need some help.

I just got a used PC for a decent price. The only thing I want to upgrade on it is the memory. It comes with 8gb of RAM (2x 4gb DDR4-3000), and I wanted to have at least 16gb

 

Should I get one more of 8gb? Can that work with the existing 2x 4gb? Can they be of different sizes or do I need to get two new 8gb or even 1 16gb?

If I was to get a 16gb stick, could that work with the existing 2 of 4gb each to give me a total of 24gb?

 

Finally, does the number after DDR4 matter? The two included are 3000 but online I've been seeing a bunch that say DDR4-2400

 

The mother board is the MSI Z270 PC Mate: 

https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z270-PC-MATE/Specification

 

Like I said, I'm pretty new to this and I don't want to make a big purchase before I know for sure, so any help would be appreciated!

 

[manikyath]

i'd say, depending on the price difference and availability:

either get sticks matching the ones you have, so you have 4x 4GB sticks.

or get vaguely similar 2x 8GB sticks and swap out the lot.

[minibois]

Hey, welcome to the forum!

5 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

I just got a used PC for a decent price. The only thing I want to upgrade on it is the memory. It comes with 8gb of RAM (2x 4gb DDR4-3000), and I wanted to have at least 16gb

I will answers all the question invidually, but what I suggest is either:

a. get the exact same set you have now

or

b. get a set as similar as possible.

 

5 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

Should I get one more of 8gb? Can that work with the existing 2x 4gb? Can they be of different sizes or do I need to get two new 8gb or even 1 16gb?

If I was to get a 16gb stick, could that work with the existing 2 of 4gb each to give me a total of 24gb?

In my experience, 99% of the time mixing memory will work, but sometimes it won't. I would suggest not going for a single stick of memory in general, as dual channel will have two sticks work together for better performance.
So if you want, you could get 2x8GB for 24GB total. I would advise against getting a single 16GB stick, unless you really want to upgrade to 64GB memory in the near future.

5 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

Finally, does the number after DDR4 matter?  The two included are 3000 but online I've been seeing a bunch that say DDR4-2400

That is the speed of the memory, measured in Mhz. Get the same speed or higher.

 

So to put it simply, I would suggest the same or a similar set (same speed, capacity) in 2x4GB or 2x8GB.

But you have to keep in mind the slim chance it won't work. Buy from a store with a decent return policy

[GeoHandle]

The number after DDR4 is the speed, higher = faster which is better, but your motherboard and CPU will both have maximum speeds they allow without it being considered overclocking. If you have different RAM in the same system with different speeds they will all run at the slowest speed. It is certainly better two use either two or four sticks of RAM, so either two 8GB sticks or four 4GB sticks, there are reasons for that but other than just saying its because of dual channel I can't actually remember why.

[Jurrunio]

eith 1x8gb or 2x4gb will do if you dont care about max OC potential

 

5 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

If I was to get a 16gb stick, could that work with the existing 2 of 4gb each to give me a total of 24gb?

it could but then you only get 16gb of dual channel and 8gb of single channel, and single channel only has half the speed.

 

5 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

Finally, does the number after DDR4 matter? The two included are 3000 but online I've been seeing a bunch that say DDR4-2400

That refers to frequency, higher is faster. Ideally you'd want to also get 3000MHz for the speed, and it does help with gaming performance.

[karaggeorge]

Thank you everyone for your quick responses! From all your comments I decided to go with 2x8gb cards, at 3000MHz, for a total of 24gb, which should satisfy my needs for years.

 

The only thing now is when they come, I'm not sure what the best placement is. I've read a bit about the channels and how different motherboards have colors to showcase them. I think from pictures I've seen, this one only has one color (black), so I'm not sure how to separate the channels and I also don't know what the best placement is. Should the 4gb ones be in one channel and the 8gb ones in the other? Or have each channel have a 4gb and an 8gb? 

 

I'll try to find some more detailed specs on the motherboard to see which slot belongs to what channel.

[minibois]

1 minute ago, karaggeorge said:

The only thing now is when they come, I'm not sure what the best placement is. I've read a bit about the channels and how different motherboards have colors to showcase them. I think from pictures I've seen, this one only has one color (black), so I'm not sure how to separate the channels and I also don't know what the best placement is. Should the 4gb ones be in one channel and the 8gb ones in the other? Or have each channel have a 4gb and an 8gb? 

Have the two 4GB sticks in a channel, the two 8GB sticks in the other channel.

 

Slots 1 and 3 work together and 2 and 4 work together.

Seems like that is also the case with your board (image from its manual):

Spoiler

 

[karaggeorge]

@minibois

 

Just to make sure, when you say 4gbs in a channel and 8gbs in a channel, is that put the 4gb ones in channel A, and the others ones in channel B? From the image, the last diagram points DIMMA1 DIMMA2 as the first two, does the A1 and A2 mean the same channel? Or is the 1s and 2s the channels?

 

I think if I'm understanding you correctly, I should put 8gb 4gb 8gb 4gb in the slots, right? (or maybe 4gb 8gb 4gb 8gb)

[minibois]

27 minutes ago, karaggeorge said:

@minibois

 

I think if I'm understanding you correctly, I should put 8gb 4gb 8gb 4gb in the slots, right? (or maybe 4gb 8gb 4gb 8gb)

Yes.

(Doesn't matter which combo, as long as the 4GB and 8GB are alternating)

[Turbof1]

I wouldn't go for the 3000Mhz version, and here is why: the board only supports 3000+Mhz with overclocking. Given you indicated not being very knowledgeable around hardware, I assume you want to stay away from overclocking.

 

You CAN put in the 3000Mhz sticks and it will work, but it will run probably at 2400Mhz speeds.

 

So I'd say save yourself a few bucks and go for sticks will lower speed. Unless you want to turn on XMP in the bios/uefi. I think that will bump up to maximum RAM speed, but someone else who knows more about that should correct me if I am wrong. Technically enabling XMP is walk in the park.

 

Reviewing your first post, it might actually be possible your current set of RAM is actually running at 2400Mhz speeds.

[karaggeorge]

That makes sense thank you! 

 

@Turbof1

 

I actually already ordered the 3000Mhz before reading your message. I probably should have checked the specs of the motherboard, but I assumed that it supported the 3000Mhz ones since the sticks already in it had that in their specs.

 

But, I did look at the price different and it was only $5, so I wouldn't have saved much anyway.

 

Thank you for the information though! I'm sure it'll be enough as is, but I might look into the XMP thing as well, to use its full potential