4 Different RAM sticks!?

[Kasper K.G]

So I’m finally starting to upgrade my 5 year old pc.. And I’m not that rich so I’m not into spending all too much money on the upgrades. So my question is, if I can use my 2 existing RAM sticks with 2x4 gigs with the new 2x8 RAM sticks? I’d be psyched for an answer! 

[boggy77]

should work, but might be a bit slower. if you don't usually use more than 16gb, i'd keep the new 2x8 for now. if you notice you run out of memory even with 2x8, add the others in, knowing that the ram frequency and timings will be a bit worse.

[Gnarlexeru]

I'd rather not.
It can cause problems from XMP not working properly to causing the PC to crash. i've experienced it.
If possible, just order the two 8 gig sticks and replace the 2x4 sticks. 24 gigs of RAM aren't really needed.

[mariushm]

Make sure you buy same type of RAM. A 5 year old machine may have DDR3, so you'd have to buy DDR3.

Make sure the motherboard supports 8 GB sticks, it may support max 4 GB sticks, for a total of 4x4 =16 GB

If DDR3 and you have an Intel cpu, make sure the new ram is not "for amd" as some chipsets and some intel processors don't handle those DDR3 sticks well, or at all. It has to do with how the tiny memory chips on the stick are arranged and wired, AMD is more flexible and supports a wider range of DDR3 sticks compared to Intel.

 

You can buy sticks running at higher frequencies, they'll automatically run at the lower frequency supported by all sticks. Same for memory timings, the most relaxed timing set supported by all sticks will be used.

If you use Intel and DDR3, double check the voltage of your current sticks (use CPU-Z for example) and if your Intel cpu prefers DDR3L sticks (running at 1.35v)

If your current sticks need 1.65v, you can buy 1.5v sticks and either reduce the frequency of the original sticks where they can function with 1.5v (cpu-z, spd tab will tell you) or you will technically overclock your new sticks to 1.65v (90% of sticks won't mind the higher voltage, but they'll be much hotter)

 

Intel CPUs that can handle DDR3L at 1.35v can only tolerate ram sticks up to 1.5v, so you can't run use sticks that need 1.65v to achieve some specific frequency.  You CAN buy  1866 Mhz (or higher) 1.65v sticks which are guaranteed to run at 1600 Mhz with 1.5v and as long as you always run those sticks at maximum 1.5v you'll be fine.

 

This being said...

Investigate if it's worth spending money on 16 GB of memory. That's around 30-50$.

You could spend probably spend 100-120$ on a CPU+MB+RAM (ex some Ryzen 3000g / Ryzen 1200-1400 + A320/b450 + 1x8GB).. a bit more if you can stretch the budget to get dual channel ram which is absolute worth it, and then sell your old mb+cpu+ram for around 50-70$

You'll get way more performance with a fresh set of parts.