Would adding this RAM work?

beany_bot · 25 Nov 2015 at 08:39

Just wondering if adding this RAM to my 2 free slots will be A: Advantageous B: Detrimental or C: Irrelevant.

We are throwing out old PC's from work and they have 2GB ram sticks in them so though I might take them for my free slots at home. Would that work though because this RAM is pretty old and was never high spec.

My 2 existing RAMS are:
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01)

These new ones are:
Samsung 2gb 1rx8 pc3-10600s-09-11-b2

My PC is an i5 4690K with Nvidea GTX 770 and the ram mentioned above.

Thanks.

Sandycheeks · 25 Nov 2015 at 08:45

Don't do it...ram will run at the lower speed and would lose dual channel so not worth it.

andicole0 · 25 Nov 2015 at 08:48

A) but only if your normal use is limited by memory. I suggest you run some monitoring tools.
Andi.

beany_bot · 25 Nov 2015 at 08:51

Sorry for sounding stupid but whats "loosing the dual channel" I will still have the 2 4gb rams in slots 2 and 4. Does that get effected?

I'll search for some monitoring tools.

Is there no way to set the computer so that you tell it "Always use the 4GB RAMS first, then use the slower RAM only if you have to". Or something like that?

rtho782 · 25 Nov 2015 at 10:36

You won't lose dual channel if you add two dimms.

All the RAM has to run at the same speed, so it will slow down the fast ram to the speed of the slow ram. You can't run some of it fast and some of it slow.

If you want more RAM just buy decent ram, you can pick up 8GB dimms for £30 these days.

beany_bot · 25 Nov 2015 at 10:56

rtho782 said:
You won't lose dual channel if you add two dimms.

All the RAM has to run at the same speed, so it will slow down the fast ram to the speed of the slow ram. You can't run some of it fast and some of it slow.

If you want more RAM just buy decent ram, you can pick up 8GB dimms for £30 these days.

Not got the money for more just now. Just though as this stuff was lying around it might work. Didn't know it all has to run at the same speed, that's annoying. It should be able to use up the fast ram first and only use the slower ram if it needs to "emergency" ram so to speak. I don't know If using all 8GB but I often do a lot of big video editing and processing with chrome running a douzen tabs in a second monitor So I guess I'm using a fair bit of RAM.

So basically 8GB@2666 > 12GB@1333 is the general concensus.

rtho782 · 26 Nov 2015 at 18:42

All the DIMMs in a channel are connected to a common bus. What you're after (2 different dimms at different speeds on the same bus) is akin to saying you want to plug two devices into an electrical extension lead, and run one at 110V and one at 230V. It doesn't work like that, they would have to be at the same voltage.

Some motherboards would let you forget dual channel and run the two 4GB 2666mhz DIMMs in one channel, and the two 2GB 1333mhz dimms in the other channel, at different speeds, but then you lose any benefit from dual channel.

For your usage pattern you may find that 12gb of slow ram works better for you, but to be honest your 2666mhz ram might not even like running at half it's rated speed.