285k 16GB to 32GB, Quad channel possible?

Fordy1001 · 19 Dec 2025 at 01:42

Hi there,

I currently have 285k system but only with 16gb of ram (2x8gb 5600mhz) sticks as it's all I could afford at the time, I would like to upgrade to 32gb but and was thinking of going 2x 16gb sticks but ram's so expensive now I can't really justify it. I have a friend who has a couple of sticks of the same memory I have now and he's selling it cheap, is it worth sticking a couple more 8gb sticks in my system and going quad channel? am I likely to get stability issues? My MB is an MSI Z890 GAMING btw.

Rroff · 19 Dec 2025 at 01:50

The MSI Z890 Gaming has 4 DIMM slots so in theory you can populate all of them, that is still only dual-channel though not quad-channel - you won't get a bandwidth increase just a capacity increase.

4x8GB is doable but you might find it harder to run the rated memory speeds stably though Arrow Lake is generally fairly capable when it comes to memory so it should work.

Fordy1001 · 19 Dec 2025 at 02:05

Rroff said:
The MSI Z890 Gaming has 4 DIMM slots so in theory you can populate all of them, that is still only dual-channel though not quad-channel - you won't get a bandwidth increase just a capacity increase.

4x8GB is doable but you might find it harder to run the rated memory speeds stably though Arrow Lake is generally fairly capable when it comes to memory so it should work.

So 2 sticks are still the sweet spot? Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

Tetras · 19 Dec 2025 at 02:44

Fordy1001 said:
am I likely to get stability issues?

Probably not, but XMP might not work "out of the box". 5600 isn't a high speed, so hopefully even that'll work too.

8GB sticks are low demand though (on the CPU's memory controller), so your chances are good.

If they're decent value, I'd take the offer (actually, let me rephrase, TAKE IT NOW!!!1!!Eleven!!!9!1!). Presumably he'd be nice if they don't work?

Purgatory · 19 Dec 2025 at 14:21

As the person is your friend, get the memory stick it in your system and see from there and all works fine pay for them. Also as some above said you may find enabling xmp may not work on 4 sticks and may need some adjusting manually or may just work without issue.

Nothing wrong with 4 sticks in a system and yes normally better to buy larger 2 sticks but that's what 4 slots are for, for future updates if needed or to max out the memory capacity the CPU can manage.

Blackwhite · 21 Dec 2025 at 02:02

4 sticks not always work properly

Fordy1001 · 23 Dec 2025 at 01:53

Tetras said:
Probably not, but XMP might not work "out of the box". 5600 isn't a high speed, so hopefully even that'll work too.

8GB sticks are low demand though (on the CPU's memory controller), so your chances are good.

If they're decent value, I'd take the offer (actually, let me rephrase, TAKE IT NOW!!!1!!Eleven!!!9!1!). Presumably he'd be nice if they don't work?

Yeah I'm running stock speeds as well so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue, wish I'd bought high speed 32gb sticks when I had the chance but hey ho live and learn and all that. My friend said I can try out the sticks next week so I'll give them a whirl and report back.

Rroff · 23 Dec 2025 at 03:10

Annoyingly the only Arrow Lake systems I've got here only have 2x DIMM slots so I can't test it though I've got a fair bit of DDR5 5600MT RAM in my possession right now. But with the platform rated for 5600MT (and up to 6400) it should in theory work fine with 4x sticks.

Kelt · 23 Dec 2025 at 03:13

Been running 4x8 on my 12700K, MSI mobo for four years, ranked speed, no issues.

freddie64 · 23 Dec 2025 at 11:03

Chances are they will be single rank modules so 4 x sticks should work (in dual channel).

CPU-Z will tell you what rank they are.

Fordy1001 · 30 Dec 2025 at 16:44

Hey guys so I've decided not to upgrade my ram now, I've spoken to a few people and it seems like I would probably increase the latency of my ram by adding more sticks especially in gaming so I'm going to stick to 2 sticks until ram prices come down or zen 6 comes out and I just buy a whole new pc. My friend said he wont sell the ram to anyone else and will hold on to them for me so I could still buy them later on if I want if my ram fails or whatever, thanks for your help.

Tetras · 30 Dec 2025 at 17:35

Fordy1001 said:
and it seems like I would probably increase the latency of my ram by adding more sticks especially in gaming so I'm going to stick to 2 sticks until ram prices come down

That's not likely to be an issue with 8GB sticks, since I doubt you'd have to do much tweaking.

Running low on memory will be a far bigger impact on your gameplay experience.

Don't get me wrong, 4 sticks with DDR5 can impact latency noticeably, e.g. if you have to drastically lower the frequency to run the 4 sticks stable, but running 4x at 5600 I'd expect to work with little/to no problem.

It is always important in context, like... if you were running 9000 MT/s in ultra competitive gaming and every last frame counted, sure, maybe that's an important consideration, but 5600? Nah.

freddie64 · 31 Dec 2025 at 09:14

Fordy1001 said:
Hey guys so I've decided not to upgrade my ram now, I've spoken to a few people and it seems like I would probably increase the latency of my ram by adding more sticks especially in gaming so I'm going to stick to 2 sticks until ram prices come down or zen 6 comes out and I just buy a whole new pc. My friend said he wont sell the ram to anyone else and will hold on to them for me so I could still buy them later on if I want if my ram fails or whatever, thanks for your help.

Ask your friend if you could try them first to see if it works ok and if it impacts performance.

Kirby Wurm · 31 Dec 2025 at 09:27

Rroff said:
though I've got a fair bit of DDR5 5600MT RAM in my possession right now

Alright, alright, stop flexing, Mr Money Bags...

In response to OP, Hardware Unboxed released a video the other day pointing out that 16GB is still sufficient for most titles, as long as you have a GFX card with a good amount of memory, and (presumably) don't run a lot of other apps on the background:

Rroff · 31 Dec 2025 at 09:46

Kirby Wurm said:
Alright, alright, stop flexing, Mr Money Bags...

Sadly don't have much 6000+MT stuff

I happened to pick up some Dell outlet systems cheap recently which have a fair bit of 5200 and 5600MT DDR5 but unfortunately only have 2x DIMM slots so I can't test 4x 5600MT with AL.

glnn_23 · 1 Jan 2026 at 01:24

Not sure about the 5600 8Gb dimms but my Tuf Gaming Z890 Pro ran 4 X 16Gb 6000 16Gb A die dimms @ 7600 no problem.