help me understand ram please

[James Chamberlain]

Budget (including currency): 

Country: 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

 

I needed a computer in short notice so I didn't exactly have the luxury of custom building a pc. So I went to best buy and bought a new ROG. Here is the model I bought on asus.com - https://rog.asus.com/ca-en/desktops/mid-tower/rog-strix-ga15-series/wtb/?productName=ROG Strix GA15 G15&levelTagId=94876      the G15DH-SBR563-CB  to be specific. After a full day of hunting online trying to find the model number of my motherboard, I finally got asus support on the horn and they told me I have a custom motherboard ( which is obvious by looking at it) 

 

all the specs are in the link above on my cpu and graphics card. What I ultimately want is to upgrade my ram cards (simple right?) well the problem is I'm only learning about how a pc works and its components. thanks to LTT! I'm hopefully posting in the right place in search of guidance as to what I should do. What information do I need to know before I choose which ram is right for me? anything specific about the motherboard besides its ddr4? the current ram is DDR4-3200 LO-DIMM 

what does lo-dim mean? 

 

what I've deducted myself is that https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 seems like the right choice based off the mHz rating and the fact it's optimized for an amd processor.  

 

am I on the right track? or do I go with ASUS recommendation of buying an identical chip as the existing card (single channel 16gb) to reach the 32gb I'm looking for, which CPUID tells me the existing single channel memory is running at 1600mHz.lol

 So will a  pair true 3200mHz ram cards damage my motherboard? or will it be everything I've dreamed of?

 

Looking forward to your help Linus Community! 

[Kavamale21]

3 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

Budget (including currency): 

Country: 

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

 

I needed a computer in short notice so I didn't exactly have the luxury of custom building a pc. So I went to best buy and bought a new ROG. Here is the model I bought on asus.com - https://rog.asus.com/ca-en/desktops/mid-tower/rog-strix-ga15-series/wtb/?productName=ROG Strix GA15 G15&levelTagId=94876      the G15DH-SBR563-CB  to be specific. After a full day of hunting online trying to find the model number of my motherboard, I finally got asus support on the horn and they told me I have a custom motherboard ( which is obvious by looking at it) 

 

all the specs are in the link above on my cpu and graphics card. What I ultimately want is to upgrade my ram cards (simple right?) well the problem is I'm only learning about how a pc works and its components. thanks to LTT! I'm hopefully posting in the right place in search of guidance as to what I should do. What information do I need to know before I choose which ram is right for me? anything specific about the motherboard besides its ddr4? the current ram is DDR4-3200 LO-DIMM 

what does lo-dim mean? 

 

what I've deducted myself is that https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 seems like the right choice based off the mHz rating and the fact it's optimized for an amd processor.  

 

am I on the right track? or do I go with ASUS recommendation of buying an identical chip as the existing card (single channel 16gb) to reach the 32gb I'm looking for, which CPUID tells me the existing single channel memory is running at 1600mHz.lol

 So will a  pair true 3200mHz ram cards damage my motherboard? or will it be everything I've dreamed of?

 

Looking forward to your help Linus Community! 

i would advice wait for your system to come. then you have it in hand you can check exacly that stick you have and decide get second identiccal 16gb stick or look for 32gb kit

[minibois]

5 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

the current ram is DDR4-3200 LO-DIMM. what does lo-dim mean? 

I don't know what LO-DIMM stands for, but basically it means "full sized" or "desktop" memory, as contrasted by SO-DIMM which is "smaller size" or "laptop" memory.

6 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

What information do I need to know before I choose which ram is right for me? anything specific about the motherboard besides its ddr4?

In my mind the most important things about memory are:

- Speed (Mhz)

- Latency (CL/CAS Latency)

(Speed / CL = true speed)

- Capacity (GB)

- Manufacturer

 

The first three should match in my opinion, manufacturer mixing is often possible.

8 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

CPUID tells me the existing single channel memory is running at 1600mHz.lol

With CPUID's CPU-Z you can view the important information of your memory.

In short 1600Mhz = 3200Mhz. Motherboard/memory manufacturers list double the speed, because DDR = Double Data rate.

Longer explanation if interested:

Spoiler

Long story a bit less short:

Your memory runs at 1600Mhz, which is (millions) of ticks per second. Per tick it can do two transfers (which is why it is called DDR = Double Data Rate), so it is running at 3200MT/s (millions of transfers per second). Manufacturers of memory/motherboards call this 'MT/s' unit 'Mhz', thus 3200Mhz.

CPU-Z reads it out the right way, thus 1600Mhz.

In CPU-Z, go to the memory tab. The pieces of info you want to find are the previously mentioned speed and latency.

Speed is probably 1600Mhz (which in fact is 3200Mhz, refer to above) and the CAS# Latency (which is probably 16 or 18).

 

Get memory that matches this.

12 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

what I've deducted myself is that https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK32GX4M2B3200C16 seems like the right choice based off the mHz rating and the fact it's optimized for an amd processor.  

This is 3200Mhz CL16, which if your current memory is that too, it should work.

 

Still, should. I've found with memory you have like a good 95% chance it works, so always buy from a store with a good refund policy.

[James Chamberlain]

5 minutes ago, 8tg said:

LO-DIMM is the correct name for desktop memory, SO-DIMM is for laptop memory

it means Large Outline or Small Outline

 

its just that it’s almost never called that anywhere, everyone just refers to desktop memory as DIMMs and laptop memory is called it’s proper name of SO-DIMMs

 

you can get any set of 3200mhz DDR4 desktop memory, not so-dimms. You can go identical if you want to be 100% sure, just take the sticks out and see what’s currently in there, buy another pair of that. But DDR4 isn’t too picky, especially if the speed is the same, it’ll just default to the slower sticks cas latency and such.

 

The reason why it reads 1600mhz is because DDR means double data rate, the bus is 1600mhz, at double rate, 3200mhz

 

okay so a Dram frequency of 1600 is in fact a 3200 mHz card  because its a DDr4 meaning there's 2 of these 1600mHz buses. that Makes sense. 

 

 

[James Chamberlain]

thanks this is making sense to me now. can I go for a higher frequency ? or does the motherboard have a rating I should be aware of before getting higher frequency memory ? I'm thinking I'm going to go with a new pair of 16x2 corsair memory, matching brands and frequency to be safe. At this point  does a pair of 3600mHz cards preform better than a pair of 3200mHz 

[Kavamale21]

6 minutes ago, James Chamberlain said:

thanks this is making sense to me now. can I go for a higher frequency ? or does the motherboard have a rating I should be aware of before getting higher frequency memory ? I'm thinking I'm going to go with a new pair of 16x2 corsair memory, matching brands and frequency to be safe. At this point  does a pair of 3600mHz cards preform better than a pair of 3200mHz 

its quite complicated. not only frequency but timing some mother board fail to load them properly. most improvement you will feel moving from single to dual channel. and it still be just few % depending on that you do you may not even notice.