Will a RAM upgrade ruin my Pre-OC

DanKurt · 12 Jun 2012 at 13:37

Hey guys,
I bought a Pre-Overclocked Bundle from Overclockers just over a year ago i'd say. The Bundle was:
i7 920 (D0)
Gigabyte EX58-UD5
Patriot Viper DD3 1600
(Titan CPU Cooler)Overclocked at 4.0Ghz (Well it actually seems like 3.8 but goes to 4.0 when Turbo boost turns on or something)

But the problem is i've started using programs like adobe After Effects and other Video Editing software and i'm in great need of some more RAM to deal with it all.

I would like to upgrade to about 12GB or more RAM but i'm worried that if I change my RAM it'll mess with the Overclock of my system and considering I'm a HUGE novice at things like this I wouldn't have a clue what to do if that happened.

So I was just wondering what would be the best option for me and also would getting more RAM mess with my OC?

Also what would be better for me, to add on to my current RAM with something like the Kingston HyperX Genesis 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-109-KS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1389 or to get something like the Corsair 12GB DDR3 2000Mhz Dominator-GT (would this RAM even work with my motherboard) or the Corsair 12GB DDR3 1600MHz Dominator Memory

As you can probably tell i'm truly a novice at this kind of thing and have actually never upgraded/put in RAM before so any help would be greatly appreciated!

no_1_dave · 12 Jun 2012 at 13:42

It depends.
Sometimes adding more ram will reset the overclock and sometimes it wont. As long as the timings etc on the new ram are the same as the old ram (and maybe same brand?) then as far as I know it should be ok. If however adding more ram makes the overclock unstable (which is possible), then yes, you'll need to overclock it again.

j.col · 12 Jun 2012 at 19:12

as above
also with more sticks of ram, you may have to increase the northbridge voltage.

setter · 12 Jun 2012 at 19:35

When i moved from 6gb of ram to 12gb, i didnt have to change much to keep my 4ghz oc. My old kit was an ocz reaper 7-7-7-24 kit, (3x2gb), new kit was 12 gb of kingston hyper x, (3x4gb). Only needed a notch on qpi voltage, was at 1.325 iirc prior to the upgrade.

DanKurt · 22 Jun 2012 at 14:36

setter said:
When i moved from 6gb of ram to 12gb, i didnt have to change much to keep my 4ghz oc. My old kit was an ocz reaper 7-7-7-24 kit, (3x2gb), new kit was 12 gb of kingston hyper x, (3x4gb). Only needed a notch on qpi voltage, was at 1.325 iirc prior to the upgrade.

Thanks mate, really considering giving it a try now

Azen · 22 Jun 2012 at 14:47

Or you could replace your current ram with the same number of sticks just larger in size, so swap 2x4 for 2x8 - which should work (provided freq/timings are similar)

Which would negate the need to increase voltage, and keep the stress on the controller the same, however any change in the ram type might need some fine tuning again. I'd export your current overclock and play but prepare to slack the ram off to get stable again.