Basic RAM Question for Most of You - Not So Much For Me

Old_Noob · May 14

I have an older NCIX built PC based on an Asus Z170-A motherboard, i7 6700K 4Ghz cpu, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB. It currently has 32Gb (2x16) DDR4 that was originally, I think, from this kit - Corsair CMK32GX4M2B3000C15. I've decided to upgrade to 64Gb, but haven't been able to find the same kit anywhere, including Corsair's site. I'm looking at all new pieces and I was wondering if this would be a suitable option CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V, or if you have other suggestions. I'm not a gamer, no interest in over-clocking or anything similar. Most of what I do is photo related (just dropped Adobe for Affinity Photo), and occasionally a little bit of Davinci Resolve work for fun.

I had also considered a whole new build, but what I have has not caused me any issues for nearly a decade, and so I'm just looking for some small upgrades. For instance, I just found out that this Asus board has an M.2 socket! Who knew? I'm going to try plugging a 1Tb drive into that for my OS drive after cloning my current one over. (Amazing the rabbit holes you can get into by watching YouTube.)

Also, do you think there would be any value in looking at a reasonable GPU upgrade if the rest of the system would support it?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

zephyr90 · May 14

if you just need *more ram*, you should be fine to mix and match. Just be prepared to return the sticks if you're one of the unlucky ones that they won't play nice together. Actual worst case scenario, your system won't post. Typical worst case scenario, your system downclocks all the memory to JDEC speeds (although after googling it, it looks like 3200 is a JDEC speed for DDR4?)

Download and open CPU-z and check the primary ram timings of your current memory kit, and compare them to the kit you're looking at getting. If they match, you should be fine. If they don't, your motherboard will most likely be able to retrain your memory timings to the slowest common denominator between them. Or you might be returning the new kit and trying another one.

Somerandomtechyboi · May 14

resell that old ddr4 and get a 2x32 kit, no fuss and cheap at around 100-110$ since ddr4 is now very cheap unless you are stupid enough to overpay for a useless heatspreader design and branding (which doesnt mean shit btw cause they all use the same samsung hynix micron ics)

an alternative route if you wanna save money is to check ics with thaiphoon burner and buy an identical oem stick, given its age likely hynix 8gbit mfr afr or micron 8gbit rev b in which case look for hma82gu6mfr/afr8n or partnumber whose second character ends in b (ex 3g2b1), saves around 20-30$ compared to just buying a 2x32 kit and reselling that old kit

depends on which ones easier for you but id personally go for advanced alternative route which is resell or trade old kit for 4x hma82gu6djr8n and clock to ddr4 3800-4000