noob questions about memory expansion

[Stan2292]

i have a single 16gb g.skill 3200mhz ddr4. i'm thinking about adding another one. i have a few questions tho.

 

1. does slot matter? or is slot 2 and 4 the only option (4 memory slots on motherboard)?

2. do i have to go with the exact same brand and model? can i go with a different model with the same specs?

3. do i need to do shit like disable xmp then re-enable it or some other wacky maneuver to make sure both memory sticks are correctly recognised & operating at the correct speed?

 

cheers

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

1. does slot matter? or is slot 2 and 4 the only option (4 memory slots on motherboard)?

 

Depends on the specific motherboard. Some only want you to do slots 2 and 4 when you have 2 sticks, there are a few that want 1 and 3, and some that don't care as long as both memory channels are populated. Check the manual to see. 

 

4 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

2. do i have to go with the exact same brand and model? can i go with a different model with the same specs?

To guarantee compatibility, they need to be the exact same sticks. The problem is that even if you have two sticks with the exact same brand and model number, it doesn't mean that they're the exact same sticks. RAM manufacturers change up the memory IC (the biggest factor in inter-stick compatibility) depending on what they have on hand that day, so if you buy two sticks at two different times, odds are you'll get two different ICs and they have a decent chance of not working together. You end up with pretty similar odds of them working together if you just buy something in the same rough speed bin, no matter the manufacturer, though you are likely going to be better off just buying a 2x16GB kit and selling your single stick if you need to get more RAM. 

 

8 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

3. do i need to do shit like disable xmp then re-enable it or some other wacky maneuver to make sure both memory sticks are correctly recognised & operating at the correct speed?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Usually when a motherboard detects that the RAM has changed it resets any setting related to the RAM, so you don't have to do that, but there are some boards I've used where you have to do a big song and dance to get it to do anything. 

[Hinjima]

24 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

i have a single 16gb g.skill 3200mhz ddr4. i'm thinking about adding another one. i have a few questions tho.

 

1. does slot matter? or is slot 2 and 4 the only option (4 memory slots on motherboard)?

2. do i have to go with the exact same brand and model? can i go with a different model with the same specs?

3. do i need to do shit like disable xmp then re-enable it or some other wacky maneuver to make sure both memory sticks are correctly recognised & operating at the correct speed?

 

cheers

@RONOTHAN## gave you great answers. And remember, no question is a noob question!  We are all here on LTT to help and learn

[Somerandomtechyboi]

You are better off selling your current kit and buying a 2x16 kit or 4 matching 8gb (used) bare pcbs with the same ic (ex 2666c19 crucial with c9bjz rev e or d9tbh rev b or samsung 2133 with k4a8g085wb bdie) though the latter is only interesting if you are both on a budget and looking for cheap high performance ram (with the only caveat being having to tune the rams yourself which is quite easy for mild 3800-4200 speeds)

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

samsung 2133 with k4a8g085wb bdie) though the latter is only interesting if you are both on a budget and looking for cheap high performance ram (with the only caveat being having to tune the rams yourself which is quite easy for mild 3800-4200 speeds)

No, don't get OEM b die and expect to overclock it. That stuff is terrible, overclocking one of those kits (I only bought it because I had a system that didn't need fast RAM, it was one of the cheapest 2x8GB kit I could find, and I was curious) is the only memory overclock I've run that managed to nuke a Windows install, and it did that at a very pedestrian 3200 CL20-20-20-40 auto subtimings. That stuff should only be expected to run its rated JEDEC speeds, getting much more than that is very difficult. I would rather C die. 

 

Also calling 3800-4200 easy is just wrong. There are a lot of platforms where that's about the limit, especially for dual rank configs like you're advocating for, and there are quite a lot of platforms where it's beyond the limit. Without knowing any of those details you can't possibly make a max easy frequency recommendation. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

40 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

No, don't get OEM b die and expect to overclock it. That stuff is terrible, overclocking one of those kits (I only bought it because I had a system that didn't need fast RAM, it was one of the cheapest 2x8GB kit I could find, and I was curious) is the only memory overclock I've run that managed to nuke a Windows install, and it did that at a very pedestrian 3200 CL20-20-20-40 auto subtimings. That stuff should only be expected to run its rated JEDEC speeds, getting much more than that is very difficult. I would rather C die. 

 

Also calling 3800-4200 easy is just wrong. There are a lot of platforms where that's about the limit, especially for dual rank configs like you're advocating for, and there are quite a lot of platforms where it's beyond the limit. Without knowing any of those details you can't possibly make a max easy frequency recommendation. 

Well i guess im basing that off my ddr3 pscs that do 2200 with ease (both in 1x2 and 1x4) on my crap p8z68 deluxe that happens to max out at a pitiful 2200

 

But what bin oem bdie did you buy anyways? Cause theres 2133, 2400, and 2666 bins (m378a1k43bb1-cpb m378a1k43bb2-crc/ctd respectively) and there does seem to be some of these floating around locally

 

obviously older zen and zen+ imcs are hot garbage but intel imcs have been pretty decent for awhile and should atleast do 3600 in dual rank even with skylake

[Stan2292]

17 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

To guarantee compatibility, they need to be the exact same sticks. The problem is that even if you have two sticks with the exact same brand and model number, it doesn't mean that they're the exact same sticks. RAM manufacturers change up the memory IC (the biggest factor in inter-stick compatibility) depending on what they have on hand that day, so if you buy two sticks at two different times, odds are you'll get two different ICs and they have a decent chance of not working together. You end up with pretty similar odds of them working together if you just buy something in the same rough speed bin, no matter the manufacturer, though you are likely going to be better off just buying a 2x16GB kit and selling your single stick if you need to get more RAM. 

i took a gamble and got lucky perhaps (my local consumer law is pretty robust anyway and all the pc parts stores offers 7 days change-of-mind returns as long as you retain original box). i bought a stick with the exact same model and chucked it in my pc. the system posts. but both on the bios and in the win10 task manager, the memory speed displayed is 2133mhz. i'm not too sure if the system is just reading the non-OC general module info off the memory sticks or is it not OC'd correctly? after adding the new stick, i did go into the bios, disable xmp, save changes, restart, go into bios again, enable xmp, save changes - the equivalent of turning it off and on again i guess... so is there a way to see the real memory speed or have i not OC'd correctly?

 

17 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Depends on the specific motherboard. Some only want you to do slots 2 and 4 when you have 2 sticks, there are a few that want 1 and 3, and some that don't care as long as both memory channels are populated. Check the manual to see. 

i haven't opened my tower in so long i forgot i had an ITX mobo lmfao i only have 2 mem slots

[RONOTHAN##]

27 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

i took a gamble and got lucky perhaps (my local consumer law is pretty robust anyway and all the pc parts stores offers 7 days change-of-mind returns as long as you retain original box). i bought a stick with the exact same model and chucked it in my pc. the system posts. but both on the bios and in the win10 task manager, the memory speed displayed is 2133mhz. i'm not too sure if the system is just reading the non-OC general module info off the memory sticks or is it not OC'd correctly? after adding the new stick, i did go into the bios, disable xmp, save changes, restart, go into bios again, enable xmp, save changes - the equivalent of turning it off and on again i guess... so is there a way to see the real memory speed or have i not OC'd correctly?

Task manager isn't really that reliable when reading memory frequency in my experience. It has a tendency to break rather easily, and I've seen times when it just completely misreads frequency as something physically impossible (it's said my 5930K was at something like 41GHz at one point, not a typo, when in reality my overclock had it at 4.3GHz). Try using something like CPU-Z to read the memory frequency instead and see what that says, it should hopefully say it's running at 1600MHz, and if it actually isn't applied it would read 1067MHz (the speeds are half because DDR4 is double data rate, so the actual data rate is double the frequency, even though RAM manufacturers mislabel the units). 

 

It not showing up right in the BIOS is a little concerning, but I know there are some manufacturers like ASUS who put it in a rather odd spot, where the place where you'd think to read the memory frequency will report the JEDEC speeds of the sticks, so that might be what's going on here. 

 

Assuming that it isn't actually working, it would help to know the exact board and model numbers. What some boards will do is they require a clear CMOS after changing the memory setup in order to change the memory settings from their default. I've only seen one board that's done that personally, but they do exist, and it would be worth a shot to clear CMOS and try to re-enable XMP and see if that does anything. 

 

39 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

i haven't opened my tower in so long i forgot i had an ITX mobo lmfao i only have 2 mem slots

That does make it a bit easier to figure out lol. 

[Stan2292]

33 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

It not showing up right in the BIOS is a little concerning, but I know there are some manufacturers like ASUS who put it in a rather odd spot, where the place where you'd think to read the memory frequency will report the JEDEC speeds of the sticks, so that might be what's going on here. 

yes my mobo is from asus. it's the asus prime b560m-k. on the bios page the only info on rams i can find is what's displayed on the top left corner, which reads 2133mhz for both sticks. i disabled then enabled xmp again just now and it still reads the same. i remember from ddr3 era that bios don't really display OC frequency. they just read and display "general module info" or something... i'm not familiar with how to clear cmos other than pressing a button lmao... and they don't have that button on lower end mobo like the one i have...

 

edit: my cpu is i5-11500, not one of those older ones that only supports 2666mhz memory in case you wonder whether that could be what's going on

[RONOTHAN##]

35 minutes ago, Stan2292 said:

i'm not familiar with how to clear cmos other than pressing a button lmao... and they don't have that button on lower end mobo like the one i have...

There's two options, pull the CMOS battery out of the system for 10 seconds, or find the CMOS jumper and connect them with something like a screwdriver.