one or two sticks of RAM?

[xMishax]

Hello everyone  I have the ability to buy a 1x8GB or 2x4GB sticks of RAM for a very low price. At the moment I have 1x8GB stick of RAM. What should I do - should I buy 1 similiar 8gb stick and dual channel it with my already owned stick or should I go for two sticks of 4GB and put them in dual channel. Im asking  because Ive heard some talks that pre-bought dual channel sticks have better compatibility. Is that true? 

My pc specs are in my profile thank you in advance

[Centurius]

Kind of depends on if the two 8GB sticks would be of the same kind. Mismatching ram, especially in a dual channel can be troublesome.

[Guest]

If you already have 1x8GB Ram then why not add another stick so you get 2x8 aka 16GB?

Downgrading to 2x4 seems odd and i haven't seen your specs but i assume your board doesnt support triple channel memory.

 

1x8GB seems obvious to me but i would make sure i had the option to return it if it wouldn't be compatible with the other stick.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

As long as the speed and latency numbers are the same, than generally it should work in dual channel.

[Huntsman]

Assuming your motherboard has 4 RAM slots. 2 of them would pair up in a channel. Which means you have 2 channels with 2 slots each.

 

If you already have a single 8GB stick inserted, you would have occupied one channel. The best course of action is to buy another same model 8GB stick and put it in the other channel. This would allow you to use both channels effectively.

 

If you buy another 2x 4GB, however you insert it you would still be unbalanced in terms of channel bandwidth usage.

 

Plus, if you buy another 8GB stick, you would still have 2 empty slots for future expansion/upgrade.

[typographie]

Ideally you should try to get another 8 GB DIMM of the same or similar product line as the original. Technically they only have to be the same capacity and run at the same settings, but another identical stick makes that easier to account for.

 

Better to get the 8 GB DIMM for 2x8 GB in dual-channel. 1x8 + 2x4 GB is still only valid for single channel mode. All installed DIMMs must have a matching pair for dual-channel.

[xMishax]

Thank you, everyone  that have been some informative answers, appreciate that have a nice day