What RAM to buy?

S_ource

So i'm going to buy ram, so i'm wondering what to think of when buying RAM. I used to have 2GBx2 but one stopped working, so now i only have 2Gb which is not so good when working with 3d. I'm wondering how much should i get, what brand and what speed? THX

EarthQuake

8GB total is good, 16GB total is better(a little overkill but ram is cheap)

What speed/ram type is dependent on your motherboard. You can't stick any old ram in there, you will want to use the fastest ram your motherboard supports.

Corsair, OCZ, Kingston, etc are decent brands.

HardBaller

Also if you have a descend sized after market cooler on your cpu you might want to consider getting some of the corsair low profile sticks. They have the same performance. Normal pricing but a lot easier to place if you don't have that much room left with the cooler fan and all covering half the motherboard haha. I personally love them.

If your motherboard is from the last 2 years i'd get 1600mhz stick. 4x4gb for example. it's a good ways in the middle. Enough to model and not to much for gaming (if you happen to do that also).

JohnnyRaptor

Check ur mobo and memory type with a sysinfo app before you buy anything to make sure u get memory that's compatible.

Also, if your gonna get more than 4gb, your OS needs to be 64bit else it's all wasted.

oXYnary

Look at the CL ratings as well. The lower the better. If you have two choices near the same price and stats, go for the one with the lower CL.

Of course that depends on if your MB supports such. Most aftermarket do, at least the Dells I have used other than the alienware do not support different CL ratings.

EQ, OCZ doesnt make ram anymore.

JonathanLambert

If your system can support it, at least 8 GB. I have a relatively modest system, and I'm posting here, streaming SOA on Netflix, and building lightmaps in UDK.

i5k Ivy Bridge
16 GB Crucial Ballistic DDR3
GTX 460

commador

I've used G.Skill ram in all my builds and its good quality stuff that is rather inexpensive. Check your motherboards model # and see what it can do. If you only have 2gb now, depending on age it may not support a large amount. Once you know what it can support, stuff it full and enjoy the rewards.

HardBaller

Oh also. And maybe it was just my bad luck but i've read it more often on hardware forums as well. If you are going to place more then 2 sticks on your mobo. Try to get them in a single package. sometimes if you use sticks from separate packages it can have a bit of instability.

McGreed

Yeah, always get the same brand and size of ram to put into the set slots on the motherboard. If you have different ram, and if you have two blue and two green ram slots (or other colours, motherboards often gets coloured now to show sets), put your two Corsair 2gb ram in the blue slots and your Noname 4 gb ram slot in the green one, so you at least can make use of the dual channels.

But optimally you should rather have four x Corsair 2gb ram, or two Noname 4 gb ram, this way you avoid any issues and incompatibility you might encounter.

S_ource

Thanks for all the tips really helpful.

SsSandu_C

Like pple have already said check the motherboard manual and see what brand of ram it supports, up to what frequency it supports, 1800mhz 1600mhz and such, the amount of total ram mostly you will be using them in dual channel so you might want to get the same type/brand of ram. 16 is the way to go in my opinion but before that check how much space you have on your motherboard with the cooler on. If it takes too much space meaning it goes over a ram slot or two you might want to go with a low profile ram(smaller radiator). Ohhh and if it supports xmp, your motherboard, it sets the voltages and clock directly from what I know.

S_ource

I bought the computer about 3 years ago as a build it yourself kit. I found my old ram package and its ddr2 1000mhz but in the mobo manual it says max 800 mhz and max 8Gb could this give some kind of errors?

HardBaller

What kind of mobo do you have S_ource? For a system 3 years old i'd at least expect 1300mhz support or more. max 8gb can be right though. All depends on how much "luxury" your mobo has.

Brand + type/model and it's easy to find out how much it can handle.

SsSandu_C

How many ram slots do you have on your motherboard? Well in bios the speed of the ram will be lowered and work at 800mhz. It is best in my opinion if you would go with 8gb of 800mhz ddr2(same kit) dual channel.(if the mobo has dual channel). I think it was better to fill in all the slots but I might be wrong. Are there ddr2 1x4gb ram? And don't forget to look in the manual at what specific brand and model of ram is supported. Most of them will work but it is better to be sure.

Overlord

Just make sure you get the right type of RAM (DDR2 in this case). 1066Mhz is fine. It won't do any harm to have faster RAM. RAM speed is inconsequential to stability, unless you overclock.

S_ource

Asus p5n-d And it got four slots. I'm thinking about getting 2 2x2gb packages, although it sucks that ddr2 cost twice as much as ddr3.

Overlord

Yeah, it may simply time for an upgrade of everything. DDR2 is obsolete, therefore it's expensive to get. DDR3 is cheaper and faster. You just need a mobo and CPU that can use it.

oXYnary

The only way to find cheap ddr2 is ebay and used at this point.

Surprised a 2 year old system took ddr2 unless it was a cheap closeout.

HardBaller

Yeah max you could fit in atm is 2x4gb 1333mhz ddr2 sticks. I'd really start looking for another mobo. I'm an AsRock fan myself. Got the new extreme6. Has everything you could ever need and more for a pretty nice (low) price. It's a z77 chipset.

@oXYnary he mentioned it was a build-it-yourself system so he could have gotten that old stuff anywhere.

Edit: saw that newegg still sells 240pins ddr2 sdram for the price of 60bucks for 4gb only holy crap.