Mix & Matching RAM

[Monti]

I need more RAM. I have DDR2 800mhz. Can I take a 8 gb kit and add to the memory I have now. Currently I have 4x1gb, and I would take 2 DIMMs away and add the other kit. Or should I get 2 kits of 2x2. I have a 680i lt motherboard. Also is 6gb enough for gaming? Thanks for any help.

[felixbearpig]

yeah as long as they are in pairs of 2

[WoodenMarker]

You can add sticks in however fashion you'd like. They would just run in single channel.

 

6GB is enough for gaming. Even 4GB shouldn't be too bad. Are you sure you need more ram? Are you running out of it? 

It seems you should be upgrading your cpu/mobo instead.

[Monti]

I think I need more RAM. I tried to run skype and CS:GO and it kept crashing . I assumed that it was I was running out of ram.

[mymouthandi]

4GB or RAM should be fine but you may as well try with 6GB and give it a go. You could run a performance monitor to see how much RAM is being used. 

Skype could well be causing the crashes, it's crashes on me all the time on both Windows and Linux. Might be worth trying something else like Razer comms. 

[Terminashunator]

you may have to loosen the timings and lower the clock rate for the ram to work. Test it, and run memtest.

Don't be surprised if it doesn't work. I had two kits, a 2x2Gb of 5.5.5.15 1066 DDR2 and a 2x2Gb of 7.7.7.21 800 DDR2 that i got to work at 6.6.6.18 841Mt/s and it worked great.

Test it, don't be surprised if it doesn't work. Don't push the volts beyond 2.1v, unless you like walking on glass.

[D3MON]

sell it all and buy a new board with ddr3, ddr2 especialy if you have an 8gb kit  :huh: will be worth a fortune

[Monti]

Unless it crashed because I only have 256mb of RAM on my video card. I ordered a new card., but I don't  have it yet.

[Terminashunator]

sell it all and buy a new board with ddr3, ddr2 especialy if you have an 8gb kit  :huh: will be worth a fortune

He's right, you know. I sold 8gb DDR2 for ~$90 and got $35 of 8gb DDR3. Core 2 Quads sell for over $100 on ebay.

I went from a Q9550, Asus P5 QL-Pro, 8GB DDR2 to a i5 3570K, Asrock Z77 Pro4-M, and 8Gb DDR3 1600 and only invested like $60 into it.

[gergy008]

Mixing RAM is like mixing batteries.

They say don't do it, but there's never any harm in doing so. The most you could do is not get the full performance of one of the sticks.

[mgsstar]

I think I need more RAM. I tried to run skype and CS:GO and it kept crashing . I assumed that it was I was running out of ram.

What error did you get when you launched Skype and CS:GO? 

 

4GB should be enough but 6GB is better imo. And yes, you can mix ram but it will not perform at its fullest. How many GBs of ram are you using when the system is idle?

[D3MON]

Ihave a q6600 and 4x2gb sticks of ddr2 800, the q6600 with a 3ghz overclock is still okay and will rival an i3 in most cases, id love to use my ddr2 in a build but that seems kinda sucky, id love to sell it (cex charges around £15 for 2gb of 800 and i have 4...) but i doubt i or you will get that much for it, figure £5 for each 2gb stick and somone who needs it will probably buy it.

i hate to say it but you might be better off with a new rig heres my train of thought...
should buy NEW ddr3 instead>needs new board>though you can get 775 board with ddr3 it probably isnt worth doing>sell board, cpu and ram as a pc (get a decent old case, powersupply and hard drive) put on something like gumtree, price it for £250 and buy a new rig,

an amd athlon 640, 8gb of 1600mhz ddr3 and something like the gigabyte 990fx ud3, that only comes to £225

youll get USB3, stock 3ghz with the potential to overclock upto 3.8 (though id just do a mild oc to 3.6), 8+2vrm phases loads of pcie 2.0 lanes, 8gb of ram will last a LONNNNG time.....

also, throughout all the testing ive done for a long time ive not had any problems with mix and matching ram (ddr2 or ddr3) though i will say if you we're to do it set your speeds and timings manually in the bios, speccy is your friend here.

[Nit3Rid3R]

Yes you can, mix and matching ram is not a problem, they can still run in Dual Channel if the specs are identical, so you can take a Corsair 2GB and a Kingston 2GB both at the same speeds and run them in dual channel.