RAM question

[Quintavious V]

Ight so look, if i were to get a prebuilt PC with 4GB of ram 2666 MHZ and i wanted more, could i add 8GB 2666MHZ of another brand? For example corsair vengeance 4gb and kingston hyperx 8gb but same speeds.

 

 

Thanks

[Firewrath9]

11 minutes ago, Quintavious V said:

Ight so look, if i were to get a prebuilt PC with 4GB of ram 2666 MHZ and i wanted more, could i add 8GB 2666MHZ of another brand? For example corsair vengeance 4gb and kingston hyperx 8gb but same speeds.

 

 

Thanks

yes. imho build ur own pc. i have several part lists for different budgets and have built several pcs.

[chckovsky]

That SHOULD work, but depending on the system, it may not. There's a few things to consider when running mismatched RAM in your system:

1) Timings. Just because two sticks of ram have the same frequency, they don't necessarily have the same performance. For example, 2133 at 13-15-15-28  and 2133 at 15-17-17-34 won't have the same performance - the one with the lower timings will be better. When you pair them however, the motherboard SHOULD tune the timings of the better stick to match the worse of the two sticks, meaning your best performing stick of ram wil perform as bad as the worst stick in the system. A bad motherboard may also adjust the timings FURTHER, beyond what is reasonable.

2) Running your memory in dual (or more) channel mode can be very benifitial in certain applications, mostly towards server and productivity functions. In most games however, this is only to a small degree (unless you're running an APU). If one "channel" of your ram is 8GB and the other is 4GB, the system SHOULD automatically map 4GB of the 8GB stick for dual channel operation and leave the rest for single channel operation. In this aspect, while using mateched pairs of RAM sticks is better, mismatching is not as weird and catastrophic as one would think.

3) And here is the real problem - the motherboard in your prebuilt was probably built to just a FEW SELECT different parts. While I wouldn't worry about any of the above on a branded motherboard, motherboard compatibility can actually be a problem in a prebuild system. You may not be able to do things like adjust timings or change fan curves on your prebuilt MB, as BIOS functionality can be atrocious.

So, TL;DR:

It should work, it probably won't work as well as on a branded motherboard with proper BIOS, but it may be a reasonable option considering what seems like a serious focus on budget.

 

So OP, what is your budget and where are you from? Perhaps we can aid you in planning a build for you?

[Quintavious V]

3 hours ago, Firewrath9 said:

yes. imho build ur own pc. i have several part lists for different budgets and have built several pcs.

i would but, im doing this for my friend in kuwait and in kuwait the prices are horrible

[Firewrath9]

2 minutes ago, Quintavious V said:

i would but, im doing this for my friend in kuwait and in kuwait the prices are horrible

ok, its your choice.

[Quintavious V]

3 hours ago, chckovsky said:

That SHOULD work, but depending on the system, it may not. There's a few things to consider when running mismatched RAM in your system:

1) Timings. Just because two sticks of ram have the same frequency, they don't necessarily have the same performance. For example, 2133 at 13-15-15-28  and 2133 at 15-17-17-34 won't have the same performance - the one with the lower timings will be better. When you pair them however, the motherboard SHOULD tune the timings of the better stick to match the worse of the two sticks, meaning your best performing stick of ram wil perform as bad as the worst stick in the system. A bad motherboard may also adjust the timings FURTHER, beyond what is reasonable.

2) Running your memory in dual (or more) channel mode can be very benifitial in certain applications, mostly towards server and productivity functions. In most games however, this is only to a small degree (unless you're running an APU). If one "channel" of your ram is 8GB and the other is 4GB, the system SHOULD automatically map 4GB of the 8GB stick for dual channel operation and leave the rest for single channel operation. In this aspect, while using mateched pairs of RAM sticks is better, mismatching is not as weird and catastrophic as one would think.

3) And here is the real problem - the motherboard in your prebuilt was probably built to just a FEW SELECT different parts. While I wouldn't worry about any of the above on a branded motherboard, motherboard compatibility can actually be a problem in a prebuild system. You may not be able to do things like adjust timings or change fan curves on your prebuilt MB, as BIOS functionality can be atrocious.

So, TL;DR:

It should work, it probably won't work as well as on a branded motherboard with proper BIOS, but it may be a reasonable option considering what seems like a serious focus on budget.

 

So OP, what is your budget and where are you from? Perhaps we can aid you in planning a build for you?

The Build is for my friend who is in kuwait, he said his budget is around 250-300 KWD which is $825-$990, in kuwait the prices are high and amazon is out the question