Upgrading RAM, does the brand matter?

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Eman2772

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Currently I have Avexir DDR4-2400 CL16 2x8GB RAM. However, I plan on doubling my RAM and the cost of this RAM has increased by more than $60. I plan on getting cheaper of the EXACT same type (speed, voltage, pin, etc.) I intend to get some sort of Corsair Vengance or Ballistix Sport of the exact same type. Other than the fact that it will look weird, will it work fine as if they were the exact same?
 
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Karadjgne
I once had 2x sticks of ram. Identical in everything, vendor, model, color, speeds size, voltage everything. Except the serial number was 10 different. As in one stick was literally made 9 sticks later. That's about as close to perfectly matched ram as its possible to get in different kits. Didn't work. Totally incompatible, no timing changes, voltage changes, speed changes, nothing would get those 2x sticks to play nicely together at all. I've taken 2x different brands, from 2x different OEM (SkHynix and Micron), at 2x different speeds with 2x different timings where the only thing that was similar was the voltage. Worked like a champ at a middle speed (1600 OC to 1866, 2133 dropped to 1866) with no real effort.

That said, there is...
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Eman2772

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As any PC enthusiast, there is no reason for buffing your rig out :) - and thanks, I will save up more for the same type of RAM.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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I once had 2x sticks of ram. Identical in everything, vendor, model, color, speeds size, voltage everything. Except the serial number was 10 different. As in one stick was literally made 9 sticks later. That's about as close to perfectly matched ram as its possible to get in different kits. Didn't work. Totally incompatible, no timing changes, voltage changes, speed changes, nothing would get those 2x sticks to play nicely together at all. I've taken 2x different brands, from 2x different OEM (SkHynix and Micron), at 2x different speeds with 2x different timings where the only thing that was similar was the voltage. Worked like a champ at a middle speed (1600 OC to 1866, 2133 dropped to 1866) with no real effort.

That said, there is only ONE guarantee about mixing ram from different kits, there are NO guarantees. It might work, it might need adjustment, it might not work. There is simply exactly no way to tell what will happen. You might have to return several kits, just to get 1 that does work, which is a huge waste of time and frustrating beyond all belief, waiting weeks or making several trips to the store, going through rma/refund processes etc.

The only ram guaranteed to work as advertised is a full kit, no mixed ram. This is factory tested and guaranteed to work. If you decide you want to be the Guinea Pig, that's fine, test away, hope it works, but reality is your best bet to get what you want, the first time around. Just understand that multiple sticks bumps the chances of failure exponentially. Adding 1 stick to 1 stick gives @4x the chance of failure, adding 2x sticks to 2x sticks is closer to 256x the possibility of incompatibility as all 4x sticks have to be compatible at the same time.
 
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aquielisunari

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Just an FYI. Buying an identical set of RAM does not ensure compatibility. RAM are sold in kits for a reason. They have been tested to ensure compatibility. I and others here have fielded plenty of questions regarding RAM issues where logic would suggest there shouldn't be a problem. Everything is the same, why isn't it working? 95% of the time it'll be fine. The other 5% end up here or at other forums or their local retailer/PC shop..
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Ram is made from silicon sheets. The center of those sheets is particularly more pure, the edges show much higher concentrations of impurities. You'll find most 4-stick kits are from the center, most single sticks cut from the outsides.

Now, most don't figure on timings. All they see is the primary, that's the CL9-9-9-27 (1600). In reality there's well over 30 different timings in secondary and tertiary tiers.

Ram also isn't just the IC's on the stick, there's also a separate controller/bios chip too. The one used by Kingston HyperX is significantly different to Micron or SkHynix.

All that said, for ram to be compatible, the impurities have to be compatible, primary/secondary/tertiary timings have to sync, speeds and voltages have to be compatible, the bios has to be compatible, basically everything about the ram sticks has to fall into a rather small range of compatability. If it doesn't, some slight adjustments like relaxing timings or clock (T1 to T3 etc) or bumping voltages might work. If that doesn't work, chances are very good that nothing will.

You might have 2x8Gb now, call it sticks A and B. Adding C and D might work out if ABCD is all good. But D might only be compatible with C, so 2x sticks work and 2x new sticks work, but 4x is bunk. Or, swap out D for another C, figure that'll work, nope because B isn't compatible with CC run dual channel. And on and on and on... You could easily test out 100 different kits and not get all 4x sticks compatible for one reason or another.

Best bet, get a kit that's already gone through all the compliance testing by the factory, where silicon batches match up, ram specifics match, bios is identical etc etc etc.
 
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