Has anyone tried mixing two RAM manufacturers and can tell me the result?

[oliverwang142]

I own 2 sticks of Ballistix Sport 4GB DDR3-1600 (BLS4G3D1609DS1S00) and a friend has
2 sticks of Kingston Hyperx blu 8GB DDR3-1600 (KHX1600C10D3B1K2/16G) which he would like to sell to me.
I read that RAM should match speeds and voltage. Both RAM are at the same speed of 1600Mhz and run at 1.5V if I am not mistaken, so it should be compatible?

Leaves the question whether 2x4GB would work with 2x8GB.

Thanks in advance.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

it might work and might not. even with the same manufacturer. there are additional settings called timings that are very important for compatibility between different sticks. and it's not limited to 4 numbers (which are usually called primary timings), there are secondary and tertiary timings.
when two sticks/sets of RAM refuse to work together, it usually means that motherboard failed to adjust the settings automatically. It can be fixed by going into BIOS and setting all or some parameters manually (frequency and timings). BUT not all motherboards allow users to modify all or some of those settings.

The simplest thing you can do (because it's a friend) is just to try.
Realistically speaking, do you really need 24GB ? 16GB is plenty for most people including advanced use cases. So you can just put his 16GB in your computer and sell your kit.

 

[oliverwang142]

it might work and might not. even with the same manufacturer. there are additional settings called timings that are very important for compatibility between different sticks. and it's not limited to 4 numbers (which are usually called primary timings), there are secondary and tertiary timings.
when two sticks/sets of RAM refuse to work together, it usually means that motherboard failed to adjust the settings automatically. It can be fixed by going into BIOS and setting all or some parameters manually (frequency and timings). BUT not all motherboards allow users to modify all or some of those settings.

The simplest thing you can do (because it's a friend) is just to try.
Realistically speaking, do you really need 24GB ? 16GB is plenty for most people including advanced use cases. So you can just put his 16GB in your computer and sell your kit.

Thanks!

Yeah 24GB is a bit of an overkill, we realized that soon after. So we settled on just switching RAM. He gets my 2x4GB and I get his 2x8GB.
This shouldn't be a problem then, right?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

why would there be a problem