Quick help with RAM please!

[akkad]

Happy holidays!

I have 2x2GB Crucial running in dual channel
(Newegg doesnt have the info on the RAM I purchased so I have no idea what their latencies or timings truly are, but CPU-Z is telling me
"CAS# LATENCY (CL) 8.0 CLOCKS.
Cycle Time (tRAS) 24 Clocks)" is there another way to know timings or latencies)
I have 4 RAM slots, thus 2 are currently free. I need more RAM so I have decided to upgrade to 8GB RAM.
Will I have to get the same RAM as my previous 2? Or can I get a Kingston 2x4 or 2x8 2x2 etc?

I know this must have been answered several times somewhere, but I have searched so much and I haven't gotten a straight exact answer, so I decided to get post it as a question here <3.

Thanks.

Proposed Future RAM : 1 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364398
2 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0332847
Current motherboard MB ASROCK|Z68 EXTREME3 GEN3 1155 R

 

[treefrog07]

The RAM you have should have stickers on the sides showing something like 8-8-8-24, plus the Memory tab in CPU-z will show the actual latencies running on your board (they can be manually adjusted in the BIOS RAM settings, so they may not match the stickers' numbers). As long as you get new RAM with the same speed, latencies, and voltage as those you already have, it should work.

 

[akkad]

The RAM you have should have stickers on the sides showing something like 8-8-8-24, plus the Memory tab in CPU-z will show the actual latencies running on your board (they can be manually adjusted in the BIOS RAM settings, so they may not match the stickers' numbers). As long as you get new RAM with the same speed, latencies, and voltage as those you already have, it should work.

Ok, so the LATENCY and the TIMING and the VOLTAGE for the new pair have to be the same to the old pair?
If so, what happens if it isnt? Well it not work, or will it work without dual channel, if its the latter, will it break the dual channel for both pairs or just one pair?

 

[akkad]

I still need an answer please. I opened my case and found my RAM to be 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 1.65V
I cant find any cheap 8latency RAM online, would my RAM work stable on a 9 latency instead so I can get another pair of RAM that are same MHz and Voltage just different ( 9 Latency) latency?

Thanks again

 

[akkad]

Best answer selected by akkad.

 

[treefrog07]

Ok, so the LATENCY and the TIMING and the VOLTAGE for the new pair have to be the same to the old pair?
If so, what happens if it isnt? Well it not work, or will it work without dual channel, if its the latter, will it break the dual channel for both pairs or just one pair?

Yes, you should try to match Speed (in MHz), Latencies (memory transaction timings), and Voltage. If you do not, you will have to re-set your BIOS RAM settings to match the lowest Voltage, Lowest speed, and Highest latencies of the two sets of RAM.

Without exactly matching the RAM, the BIOS will try to read both sets of RAM and since each set would have different settings, the BIOS may show errors and may not allow the computer boot into the operating system.