I've got Two Issues, Conveniently (RAM and Startup Issues)

[BiomeBuster]

I have a MSI z270 Gaming Plus mobo and I currently have 2x4gb ddr4 2666 Gskill ripjaws V ram installed, with a pair of Team 2x8GB ddr4 3000 ram on the way. The fan I have (Cryorig H7 Universal) is blocking ram slot 1, and thankfully my mobo said to install ram on 2 and 4. But I eventually wanted to have more than 16gb, but since the fan is blocking slot 1 and only slots 2,3, and 4 are available, would it be possible to install just one stick of ram on slot 3? Or just 1 stick of my old ripjaws on slot 3?

Now for the startup issues. I recently ordered a new 240gb ssd from Inland. I have a 1tb HDD from seagate, as well as an optical drive. I only have enough room on my PSU for either the two drives, or one drive and the optical drive. I no longer need to use the optical drive, so I got to fiddling around with the sata cable plugins. I unplugged the optical drive and plugged in those ports on the SSD and went ahead to start up the pc. I only get a flashing red light, and I don't understand why. I plugged everything back in (took out the SSD and plugged everything in back on the optical drive and hdd) and the pc still didn't want to start. I unplugged all my peripherals after replugging everything into the mobo again, and had only one monitor (of 2) plugged in and fired it back up. It starts and loads up, but I haven't been able to troubleshoot as this was late last night. Hopefully someone out there has a fix for both issues. Thanks for your responses!

For those that need a part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Biome/saved/9ktr6h

 

[skywalkerqq]

I think the best thing to do is either try to rearrange your cpu cooler, if the fan is blocking ram clearance then I would move it to the other side of the heatsink.

 

[BiomeBuster]

I think the best thing to do is either try to rearrange your cpu cooler, if the fan is blocking ram clearance then I would move it to the other side of the heatsink.

The fan is just too massive and would take up more room if I installed it another way.

 

[skywalkerqq]

I think the best thing to do is either try to rearrange your cpu cooler, if the fan is blocking ram clearance then I would move it to the other side of the heatsink.

The fan is just too massive and would take up more room if I installed it another way.

On the cryorig h7, you can move the fan around so would you try just adjusting the fan a little bit higher on the heat sink? it shouldn't affect thermals to a large extant, like maybe a few degrees if anything.

if you can't find a solution for the cpu cooler clearence it is ok to only have three sticks of ram, just make sure the third stick is the same ram speed and has the same timings and voltage too.

I don't know whats wrong about the boot up situation. are all the cables connected correctly?