Adding additional memory into a pre-overclocked bundle

davetheone

davetheone

davetheone

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I recently (like everyone else) built a new PC for the various games coming out within the next month but I have never been particularly comfortable tinkering too much with the BIOS/CMOS settings so I decided to go with one of OCUKs pre-overclocked Mobo / CPU / RAM deals.

At the time I thought that 4GB would be enough (and while many would argue that it is) I am tempted to put in another 4GB. The thing that is stopping me is the "disclaimer" that OCUK put on the page being:

"Note - Please note that adding in additional memory to the spare slots will require new BIOS settings and the maximum clock speed attainable may be significantly reduced."

Is this more of a "cover-our-asses" disclaimer or is there a decent chance that adding another 2 sticks of 2GB RAM is going to cause stability issues or lower the highest attainable clock speed?

Thanks for any feedback.

DT1
 
What sort of overclocked bundle?

With Sandy Bridge it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I upgraded 2 overclocked Sandy Bridge systems from 8GB to 16GB and the overclocks weren't affected at all.
 
I'm in the same boat. I was looking at picking up something like this to add to my system (afterall, the memory is pretty cheap now). I'm working on the basis that adding RAM might cause issues, so I'm just looking to replace the existing RAM.

However, I'm still not certain it will work. Here is my RAM setup according to CPU-Z. I want to know whether this sort of memory is will work and what the chances are of being able to 'add' the RAM (taking me up to 12GB) rather than 'replacing' it with the 8GB. My motherboard is an ASUS P8P67-M Pro with a 4.6GHz overclock from OCUK.

PS - I'm not trying to hijack the thread, we just seem to be trying to do the same thing.
 
TAC4U said:
I'm in the same boat. I was looking at picking up something like this to add to my system (afterall, the memory is pretty cheap now). I'm working on the basis that adding RAM might cause issues, so I'm just looking to replace the existing RAM.

However, I'm still not certain it will work. Here is my RAM setup according to CPU-Z. I want to know whether this sort of memory is will work and what the chances are of being able to 'add' the RAM (taking me up to 12GB) rather than 'replacing' it with the 8GB. My motherboard is an ASUS P8P67-M Pro with a 4.6GHz overclock from OCUK.

PS - I'm not trying to hijack the thread, we just seem to be trying to do the same thing.
Click to expand...

You can certainly replace you're existing RAM with the G.Skill and with a bit of tweaking of timings you can probably get all 12GB working together.

The G.Skill is only on offer for a few more hours as the weekly offers are changed on Wednesday mornings.
 
Surveyor said:
You can certainly replace you're existing RAM with the G.Skill and with a bit of tweaking of timings you can probably get all 12GB working together.

The G.Skill is only on offer for a few more hours as the weekly offers are changed on Wednesday mornings.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much, I wasn't aware when the offered ended. Anyway, I've placed the order and I'm just going to hope for the best. Hopefully I can get it all working together, though I'll be happy with just 8GB of RAM.
 
TAC4U said:
Thanks very much, I wasn't aware when the offered ended. Anyway, I've placed the order and I'm just going to hope for the best. Hopefully I can get it all working together, though I'll be happy with just 8GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

No problem.

If you have any problem getting it running then post back and we'll sort you out.

The G.Skill has slightly looser timings than the Corsair you have now (not that it makes any noticable difference to performance) so you might need to set the RAM up manually in the BIOS to use all 12GB:

Speed 1600MHz
CAS 9
tRCD 9
tRP 9
tRAS 24
Command Rate 2N/2T
Voltage ~1.5V
 
What I usually do before any hardware upgrade is print screen all settings in the BIOS to ensure I have a fail safe.
 
Surveyor said:
The G.Skill has slightly looser timings than the Corsair you have now (not that it makes any noticable difference to performance) so you might need to set the RAM up manually in the BIOS to use all 12GB:

Speed 1600MHz
CAS 9
tRCD 9
tRP 9
tRAS 24
Command Rate 2N/2T
Voltage ~1.5V
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll be sure to do that. Hopefully I can get it all to play together nicely.

dLockers said:
What I usually do before any hardware upgrade is print screen all settings in the BIOS to ensure I have a fail safe.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I normally take pictures with my phone in case there's a problem. I also make sure that I have a backup profile of the overclock saved to BIOS/UEFI. That's especially important for updating the motherboard firmware, as it often resets to default or has issues unless you do.

I'll post back as soon as I've installed it. Hopefully it will be a pretty easy upgrade, though it's usually the easier ones that cause the most trouble in my experience. :o
 
Well, I am now up and running with 12GB of RAM in dual-channel mode (according to CPU-Z). I did have a warning message about a problem with the overclock on first boot, followed by a bluescreen after I logged in to Windows 7. Sometimes I get BSODs due to my Vertex 3 SSD, so it's not even certain it was memory related. However, when I restarted everything worked fine. I checked my overclock was still running and ran Prime95 in blend mode to stress test my system.

When I checked BIOS before installing the new memory the DRAM timings were actually set to 9,9,9,24, rather than 8,8,8,24. Checking CPU-Z now it shows that the old memory is still set to 8,8,8,24 and the new memory is running at 9,9,9,24. I assume this is because they're separate channels. Is there any chance that this could cause me issues in the future?

I just hope that anybody else trying this has the same luck.
 
mickyflinn said:
All RAM needs to be run at the same voltage, speed, and latency settings otherwise it can become unstable.
Click to expand...
According to Intel you do not need to match 'DDR speed', 'brand' or 'timing specifications' to maintain dual-channel. I thought that if there was a mismatch in timings it was meant to default to the slowest value.

Here's my CPU-Z readings. Which section do I want to look at - 'Memory' or 'SPD'? Notice the two channels in SPD are different, yet the Memory section shows the slower timings of 9,9,9,24. It might be that all my memory is running at 9,9,9,24 and I just misread it.
 
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