RAM compatibility

[Apocalipse]

Hello everyone, i had some troubles with my PC lately and i have just noticed that my ram is not supported by the MB,

and interesting part is that i have been running this ram for well over a year now with no issues.

So the question is what are those tables that MB manufacturers leave for if i can use non-listed ram?

[wyattzx]

"QVL," or "Qualified Vendor List." is a list consisting of hardware that has been tested and confirmed to function on a particular motherboard. (QVL applies to others things, but in this context...) As an example, only two DIMMs of RAM are verified to be supported by my motherboard. Yet almost any standard DIMM kit works fine. There's a difference between unsupported, and a manufacturer simply not verifying it by hand.

[Litargirio]

Cause there is millions of different memory sticks out there, and it's impractical to test all of them. But in the end, all RAM (of a certain type, eg DDR-3 non-ECC) is almost exactly the same, so those tables don't really have much use, except when you are looking into buying something more... exotic, like ECC RAM.

[JefferyD90]

Hello everyone, i had some troubles with my PC lately and i have just noticed that my ram is not supported by the MB,

and interesting part is that i have been running this ram for well over a year now with no issues.

So the question is what are those tables that MB manufacturers leave for if i can use non-listed ram?

 

"QVL," or "Qualified Vendor List." is a list consisting of hardware that has been tested and confirmed to function on a particular motherboard. (QVL applies to others things, but in this context...) As an example, only two DIMMs of RAM are verified to be supported by my motherboard. Yet almost any standard DIMM kit works fine. There's a difference between unsupported, and a manufacturer simply not verifying it by hand.

This is a accurate response.  Just because its not on the QVL list doesnt mean it wont work.  It simply means that they dont guarentee it will work automatically.  Often times, if you'll simply go into the BIOS and manually set the timings, speed, and voltage for unsupported RAM it will work flawlessly, although I cant guarentee if its not on the QVL list.

 

In the future, just buy RAM that is on the QVL list

[Apocalipse]

This is a accurate response.  Just because its not on the QVL list doesnt mean it wont work.  It simply means that they dont guarentee it will work automatically.  Often times, if you'll simply go into the BIOS and manually set the timings, speed, and voltage for unsupported RAM it will work flawlessly, although I cant guarentee if its not on the QVL list.

 

In the future, just buy RAM that is on the QVL list

Cool, thanks for the answers everyone!