do i need matching sticks of ram ?

doggystyle · 21 Jul 2020 at 22:09

I have 1 8gb stick og kingston fury x ram, HX318C10F/8.

Can I buy another 8gb stick of the same ram and will it work ok?

Kingston said it won't work and I'll need to buy two matching sticks, I've never heard of this.

Thanks.

Tetras · 21 Jul 2020 at 23:07

It will probably work, but they won't provide any support for running single sticks in dual channel mode. I've purchased single sticks for years and always been fine, though that memory is high performance (for DDR3) so it more dubious.

It can also make troubleshooting more difficult, because you can't be sure it's not a compatibility issue.

doggystyle · 22 Jul 2020 at 15:44

Tetras said:
It will probably work, but they won't provide any support for running single sticks in dual channel mode. I've purchased single sticks for years and always been fine, though that memory is high performance (for DDR3) so it more dubious.

It can also make troubleshooting more difficult, because you can't be sure it's not a compatibility issue.

Thanks. Would you buy another 8gb stick at £40? I'm torn.

SonicSW20 · 22 Jul 2020 at 15:48

If you buy another of the exact same SKU, then it'll probably work just fine, XMP and all. If not you'll have to set speed / timings / voltage manually to get it working.

Tetras · 22 Jul 2020 at 15:50

I'd probably do it, yeah.

The only other alternative I can think of is to buy a 2x4GB kit and run three sticks, with them operating in their own channel, most Intel boards will support that in dual channel mode. Not sure if it would be any cheaper or more likely to work.