Is different SPD on a second stick of RAM fine?

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Adrenaline Rush

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Apr 13, 2014
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Hi,

I have done my research and now think I understand how to read ram labels some what at least by this manufacturer. My problem is I have found some RAM that is nearly the same as my RAM. It's quite hard to find the one I'm looking for that is not really old or used.

So my current RAM is:
SK Hynix (Korea) 4gb 1Rx8 PC3L-12800S 11-12-B4
HMT451S6AFR8A-PB N0 AA 1314

The one I found is:
SK Hynix (Korea) 4gb 1Rx8 PC3L-12800S 11-13-B4
HMT451S6BFR8A-PB N0 AA 1507

So as you can see the second stick is from 2015 week 7. A lot newer than mine, but the main problem is the different SPD number. Will this make a difference? Should I get an older RAM stick which is the same, but more likely to stop working? Or would be installing this ram be fine.

I bought my laptop refurbished and it can take up to 16GB RAM. Two 8GB sticks. The reason I am getting the ram is I have a lot of tabs open at times and I open up to 100+ at a time and go through them, otherwise I forget about them. Plus I will be doing a bit of video editing in the future. In case you wondered.

Any answers explaining why it's a problem or fine are appreciated. Cheers

Edit - Does this also depend on the motherboard? or SSD?

I installed a SSD OCZ Vector 180 120gb for fast booting and program launching, took the DVD Drive out made it external and installed the original drive in a caddy, which went in the DVD drive slot.

Doesn't the L after PC3 Mean DDR3 1.35v?

Chrome Question. :) Unrelated.

I use Firefox because I like to have a column on the left with bookmarks and have an app which backs them up. I also use to see Google Chrome doing a lot of process at once and it's hard to close the lot at once when I have multiple windows with tabs open in. With Firefox I just go to task manager and end it. Although I haven't used Chrome on Win10 so maybe it's different now? Still I'm use to Firefox and like it. The great suspender might be useful if I can find it or something similar on Firefox. But a way to save tabs for future will most likely end up with me just having thousands of tabs to look in to. Ha, best if I just open them all at once get it done and close them after.

Plus I would like to know for sure that if I do have a lot of programs open at once, my system can handle it, as I tend to do this it makes sense to get more ram.
 
Solution
J
It will probably work. If it works, it works which the slower timings (ie, 13 instead of 12). You won't notice any speed difference in real-world terms.

It may be incompatible - happens a couple percent of the time. In this case you either need to find something compatible with the old stick, something compatible with the new stick, or buy a new 2 stick kit.

The trouble is there's no way to predict what is and is not compatible with anything else. Certainly matching Hynix chips to Hynix chips helps, and matching brands helps. You absolutely need to match voltages, but you shouldn't have any trouble with such slow RAM (both being PC3L-12800). Matching rated speed and timing increases the chance of it being compatible on top of...
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joex444

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Feb 16, 2006
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It will probably work. If it works, it works which the slower timings (ie, 13 instead of 12). You won't notice any speed difference in real-world terms.

It may be incompatible - happens a couple percent of the time. In this case you either need to find something compatible with the old stick, something compatible with the new stick, or buy a new 2 stick kit.

The trouble is there's no way to predict what is and is not compatible with anything else. Certainly matching Hynix chips to Hynix chips helps, and matching brands helps. You absolutely need to match voltages, but you shouldn't have any trouble with such slow RAM (both being PC3L-12800). Matching rated speed and timing increases the chance of it being compatible on top of all that, but it's still not possible to guarantee anything being compatible with anything else except for RAM modules from a 2 stick kit as those have been tested to work together before being sold.

> The reason I am getting the ram is I have a lot of tabs open at times and I open 100 and go through them.

Also way unrelated, but if this is Chrome then you might want to look into things like The Great Suspender so that unused tabs take up much less RAM. Another option is Pocket, but that's a behavior change to save things to read for later and then visiting Pocket to see them again (of course this works across browsers and across devices and has a free service option).
 
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Solution
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BadBoyGreek

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May 15, 2014
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RAM can be finicky in a lot of ways. Sometimes even identical sticks with identical timings but even a slight revision can cause incompatibility.

Anyway, the SPD timing being slightly off isn't much of a concern, in that the RAM would just run at the higher timing at best. Worst that will happen if you try it is your system won't boot; you won't hurt anything by trying.
 
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