[SOLVED] GA-Z170-HD3P RAM Upgrade

[nickbat]

A bit of an odd one this - I should point out I bought this machine from ebay a few years back - really happy with it but I run a lot of Hyper-Vs so I needed some more RAM. I had 4 sticks of G.SKILL 4GB PC4-24000 DDR4-3000 RAM (part number F4-3000C15Q-16GVR - I should point out I haven't built a PC for 20 years so am behind on hardware). Anyway, needed to get 64GB so went to crucial, used their scanner and was sent 4 x 16GB DDR4-3200 (Part number CT16G4DFD832A). Anyway, booted up and couldn't get to the BIOS and had 5 long beeps. Went through lots of things with their support (CMOS BIOS reset, BIOS upgrade etc), but he gave up and told me to send them back for a refund. Anyway, decide to have 1 more crack at it; left all the original RAM in, but then started replacing them one by one. Weirdly that started working and got to slots 2, 3 & 4 filled with the 16GB sticks, and just slot 1 with the original but it seems no matter I do, I can't get slot 1 to take a 16GB stick without it beeping. Its not the stick as if I swap it for another that works in slot 2, 3 or 4, it does the same thing. Any ideas?

 

[tennis2]

The 16GB sticks, were they purchased as a 4x16GB KIT (sold and packaged together)?

Have you tried running the RAM at (stock) 2400MHz?

 

[nickbat]

You're a star - got me on the right path. The RAM was a kit, but you were spot on with the speed idea. Bear in mind I've never looked at overclocking in my life, so assumed with the bios memory speeds set to auto they would just work, but once I set them to 2133 MHz as per the manual it all started working. Surprised the auto setting didn't work as it clearly did with the G.Skill ram, just not with the crucial. Was able to set the ram speed manually to 2133 with the g.Skill in and then when I took it out and put all the new RAM in it worked a treat. Thanks a lot for your help

 

[tennis2]

Some general considerations:

• Technically anything above DDR4-2400 on a 7th gen Intel CPU is considered overclocking.
• RAM is only TESTED/GUARANTEED by the manufacturer to run at the advertised speed (3000MHz & associated timings) in the package it comes in. If you buy 4 individual sticks, or two 2-stick kits, there's no guarantee they'll all work together at the advertised speed and/or timings (sometimes you can still get the MHz if you relax the timings a bit).
• 2 sticks of RAM is the "best" for ensuring everything runs as advertised. 4 sticks is "harder" on the memory controller (within the CPU, which is also subject to "silicon lottery), so with 4 sticks, the memory controller may limit your success even if you bought a 4-stick kit.
• Higher RAM frequency is harder to achieve with more sticks. Intel is certainly/generally much better with RAM support/compatibility than AMD Ryzen (they're getting better, hence all the AGESA updates), but there's still a chance you'll run into issues with more sticks and higher frequencies.
• The more GB of per-stick capacity, the more potential there is for a faulty spot on a chip/stick. Test test test for stability.
• There's a chance that, because you're maxing out your board with 4x16GB sticks, there may be some necessary frequency/timing sacrifices to get everything working.
• A stick/kit of RAM will usually have many speed and/or timing profiles available for selection within your mobo BIOS. That's certainly the easiest way to go. But you have the freedom to go "manual" if you desire. Depends on how much frequency/timings affects your usage, or if you just need GB.