mixing laptop ram brands ?

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:07

Hi all,

looking to buy additional 4gb ram for my laptop. I wanted to know if its ok to mix ram brands.

do i need to match the latency ? or is it as long as the memory speed is obviously the same. in this case would be 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 PC3-12800.

I assume dual channel will work regardless of latency or brand, as long as they are same size and speed ?

wildman · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:09

I generally mix them with some lime and a dash of tonic............... no harm so far.....

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:14

wildman said:
I generally mix them with some lime and a dash of tonic............... no harm so far.....

is it that bad in Stotfold

Armageus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:16

Not normally an issue mixing brands and even speeds or latencies - same as with a desktop, while not optimum, it normally works based on the SPD information stored in the RAM and drops to the highest that both modules support.

willhub · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:17

If you keep the blender on for long enough you won't have different branded ram anymore, you won't need to worry about mixing then.

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:19

willhub said:
If you keep the blender on for long enough you won't have different branded ram anymore, you won't need to worry about mixing then.

wow a lot of drinkers especially this early in the morning.

I get it. its the title ....

wildman · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:21

lixxus said:
wow a lot of drinkers especially this early in the morning.

I get it. its the title ....

nah, it's GD, would have been better to post in the General Hardware section or the memory sub forum

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:25

wildman said:
nah, it's GD, would have been better to post in the General Hardware section or the memory sub forum

I hear that, but I know there is well informed drinkers I mean tech gurus hear that can I rely on.

Might sound dopey or really basic 101 IT. I just thought laptops for some reasons might be slightly abit different. As you may know certain laptop circuit boards wont accept other wifi modules etc.

I just thought when it came to dual channel support I would have to buy two identical ram brands or buy another ram stick identical to the one I have if I can find it.

wildman · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:37

lixxus said:
I hear that, but I know there is well informed drinkers I mean tech gurus hear that can I rely on.

Might sound dopey or really basic 101 IT. I just thought laptops for some reasons might be slightly abit different. As you may know certain laptop circuit boards wont accept other wifi modules etc.

I just thought when it came to dual channel support I would have to buy two identical ram brands or buy another ram stick identical to the one I have if I can find it.

I think the actual brand is irrelevant providing the specs and timings are the same ? Even if those were different I think it always defaults to the slowest of the 2 speeds for all units if you did mix and match. For dual channel you'd ideally want a matched pair but dual channel should still work providing you have the same timings on both sticks I believe

Davey_Pitch · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:42

wildman said:
nah, it's GD, would have been better to post in the General Hardware section or the memory sub forum

What are you on about, it is in the Memory sub forum

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:44

wildman said:
I think the actual brand is irrelevant providing the specs and timings are the same ? Even if those were different I think it always defaults to the slowest of the 2 speeds for all units if you did mix and match. For dual channel you'd ideally want a matched pair but dual channel should still work providing you have the same timings on both sticks I believe

Thank you.

I take it the norm today for laptop ram standard is 8gb. Is anyone here running 16gb on the 5th gen i5/i7.

Is there any significant improvement or just overkill. I will be mainly using it for my for video/photo editing . I was looking at the Kingston HyperX Impact Black Series

Armageus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:45

wildman said:
I think the actual brand is irrelevant providing the specs and timings are the same ? Even if those were different I think it always defaults to the slowest of the 2 speeds for all units if you did mix and match

Pretty sure I said almost the same a few posts ago, but probably ignored due to the offtopic

wildman said:
For dual channel you'd ideally want a matched pair but dual channel should still work providing you have the same timings on both sticks I believe

Dual channel will work fine, just at the fastest speed and latency that both module support (as shown by SPD information or presumably XMP as well if supported e.g. Maybe by gaming laptops).

lixxus · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:48

Armageus said:
Pretty sure I said almost the same a few posts ago, but probably ignored due to the offtopic

Dual channel will work fine, just at the fastest speed and latency that both module support (as shown by SPD information or presumably XMP as well if supported e.g. Maybe by gaming laptops).

thank you sorry I didn't see that post. I didn't want to be forking out on buy more than I should do.

I might just settle for the 4gb Kingston HyperX Impact Black Series 1600mhz.

its going rate at the moment is £20

willhub · 15 Jul 2015 at 10:51

I like my DDR5 shaken, not stirred

- Sorry

Of course it's ok to mix ram (in a PC)