I am planning on upgrading my 300 dollar ASUS PC from Best Buy from 4 gigs of RAM to 8, and I was wondering if two different brands of RAM on one motherboard would cause any problems. It already has 4 gigs of 1600 mhz RAM, and I don't really feel like taking that out and spending 100 dollars on 8 gigs when I could just spend 50 on 4 gigs and add it. The only thing wrong with that plan is that I'm worried that because of the two different RAM brands, they will interfere with each other and cause problems like RAM not working or the computer glitching up or something. Can I just buy 4 gigs or will I have to buy 8?
Will two different RAM brands of 4gb 1600 mhz cause any problems?
- Thread starter AnMLGNoob
- Start date
Solution
Voltage can get very finicky with DDR3, so even if they match on paper, there is a nonzero chance you'll have to mess around with settings in the BIOS to get them to work together. Forums user Tradesman is the resident expert on the matter and usually comes around with better info when he's on.
- Oct 30, 2004
- 32,255
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Be aware that two sets of RAM from the same manufacturer, same model, same specs are not guaranteed to work .... but it always gives you "your best shot".
So if you spend the $80 on a 2 x 4GB set ($70ish), you are guaranteed a positive result.
If you spend $50 on same brand, same model of 2 x 2Gb it might work..... might not
If you spend $50 on same spec of 2 x 2Gb it might work..... might not.
If you take the $50 route, you will have to set up BIOS to use the lowest common speed and timings... you may have to bump voltage up a bit but still it might not work.
I once was asked to do an 4 => 8GB upgrade on two old boxes....one with Corsair and one with Mushkin .... neither had and matching modules still for sale .... Gskill did....
2 Corsair + 2 Gskill = no go
2 Mushkin + 2 Gskill = no go
2 Gskill + 2 Gskill = worked
2Mushkin + 2 Corsair = worked
In other words, it's crapshoot.
I would estimate that over the last 22 years of windows PC building, I have had success mixing brands about 85 - 90% of the time..... about half of those went "plug em in and play", the orther half required some BIOS tweaking and or voltage bumps. The higher the spec, the harder it is. Sticks w/ Hynix modules have given me the least issue as they seem to be more tolerant than others.
So if you spend the $80 on a 2 x 4GB set ($70ish), you are guaranteed a positive result.
If you spend $50 on same brand, same model of 2 x 2Gb it might work..... might not
If you spend $50 on same spec of 2 x 2Gb it might work..... might not.
If you take the $50 route, you will have to set up BIOS to use the lowest common speed and timings... you may have to bump voltage up a bit but still it might not work.
I once was asked to do an 4 => 8GB upgrade on two old boxes....one with Corsair and one with Mushkin .... neither had and matching modules still for sale .... Gskill did....
2 Corsair + 2 Gskill = no go
2 Mushkin + 2 Gskill = no go
2 Gskill + 2 Gskill = worked
2Mushkin + 2 Corsair = worked
In other words, it's crapshoot.
I would estimate that over the last 22 years of windows PC building, I have had success mixing brands about 85 - 90% of the time..... about half of those went "plug em in and play", the orther half required some BIOS tweaking and or voltage bumps. The higher the spec, the harder it is. Sticks w/ Hynix modules have given me the least issue as they seem to be more tolerant than others.
capt_taco
Splendid
- Aug 5, 2009
- 2,567
- 0
- 21,460
Over the years, I've found that mixing and matching memory *USUALLY* works as long as they have the same voltage. But unless you were really bottlenecked by too little RAM to begin with, most of the performance gain you just give right back.
A much better idea is to spend the $80 on a set of 2x4GB sticks and sell your existing 2x2GB for $30 on ebay. That way you've still spent the same amount of money and you have 8GB that's guaranteed to work together.
By the way, if you have the choice, you're better off with two sticks than four. It's just a lot easier to get (and keep) it stable with two sticks.
A much better idea is to spend the $80 on a set of 2x4GB sticks and sell your existing 2x2GB for $30 on ebay. That way you've still spent the same amount of money and you have 8GB that's guaranteed to work together.
By the way, if you have the choice, you're better off with two sticks than four. It's just a lot easier to get (and keep) it stable with two sticks.
Tradesman1
Legenda in Aeternum
- Jun 5, 2013
- 67,883
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______________________
+1 Good question
As far as mixing DRAM, anytime you try and mix DRAM from different packages it can be and often is, even the same exact model. This is especially so with DRAM 1600 or better, it used be fairly eay back w/ DDR2 and early DDR3, but once the higher performance and freq DRAM started to appear, there were no JEDEC specs to go by and DRAM makers started getting more creative, which makes it harder. If you were to go this route and try mixing and have problems give me a shout, it's an extremely common problem and I pretty much help folks with DRAM that doesn't want to play about daily
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