Mixing RAM

yellowplum · 9 Jun 2011 at 12:49

I have an asus board I purchased last year and it has 4GB of ram (OCZ Reaper) CL 7-7-7-24, of course OCZ no longer manufacture any RAM. So my question is whether I would have any issue putting in different RAM from another manufacturer with different timings?

Is there anything special I must look out for when looking at RAM to mix with what I have currently?

Philtor · 9 Jun 2011 at 12:55

It will probably work fine but if it were me I would sell the RAM and buy a new kit. Corsair XMS2 / XMS3 is well worth a look.

yellowplum · 9 Jun 2011 at 12:56

What would happen? Would the newer slow down the old or vice versa?

Philtor · 9 Jun 2011 at 13:01

Providing you buy the same type of RAM (PC6400 for example) then you should be ok but if you install slower RAM (PC5300 for example) then your Motherboard will run the RAM at the speed of the slowest module. So buy the same type of RAM and you should be ok but as I said - if it were me I would sell the RAM and buy a new kit.

Hagar · 9 Jun 2011 at 13:24

I am running OCZ gold 12800 and Geil 12800 4Gb of each at 1667Mhz without and issues.

Admiral Huddy · 9 Jun 2011 at 14:36

@yellowplum, Ideally you should match your RAM but there's no reason why mixed RAM won't work. However, you may have to adjust the memory manually to ensure all modules run at the frequency/timings of the slower RAM.

yellowplum · 9 Jun 2011 at 15:10

Hi thanks for the replies, it's not the speed of the ram in terms of DDR3 1600, as this is what I have and what I am looking to add to the machine.

What my question relates to is specifically the timings, does it make a difference if the timings are different?

Admiral Huddy · 9 Jun 2011 at 15:48

As per previous post, the specification of the modules don't have to have the same timings but they must all run the same. The timings must that of the modules with loosest timing (Higher numbers = loose timings).

Yellowbeard · 9 Jun 2011 at 20:38

My advice would be to buy a kit of 2 x 4GB modules. If you mix them and they work, then you have 12GB of RAM. If they will not work together, then at least you do have a new 8GB kit that will work on its own. If you buy another 4GB kit, and they won't mix then you have not upgraded at all. And, 2 x 4GB is pretty cheap.