Question Memory upgrade?

[sobakowa19]

I have a 2x8gb set of corsair vengeance rgb pro 3200mhz ram in dual channel on my asus b450 motherboard with a ryzen 5 3600 clocked at 4.2ghz. Would it make sense to buy two more sticks of the same memory/same speed and cl, and add to the motherboard (which has 4 dimm slots) for quad channel memory, buy faster memory and replace what I have or what? More or faster? What is the general opinion on the matter. Curious as to what I should do, my system runs great as is, just looking for a reason to spend some more money. Also I primarily just game and watch youtube on the computer, no work other than emails on occasion and Im 35, been out of college for a while (thank God).

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is no option for "quad channel memory" on B450. It can only run in single or dual channel. Period. Doesn't matter how many sticks are installed, even with four DIMMs the best you can do is dual channel.

And, if you add memory to existing memory, you always run the risk that it will not play nice together.

If you need more capacity, buy a 2 x16GB kit and sell your current kit. Running four DIMMs puts additional stress on the memory controller and increases CPU temperatures anyhow. Sometimes it's necessary to get to the capacity you wish to run, but when it isn't it is best to choose the alternative method.

If you MUST add memory to your existing memory for financial reasons, your best chance at success is not by matching "specifications" but is by getting an identical model kit to the existing one. Even then, there are no guarantees.

If you DO buy new memory, I'd look for a kit in the 3600-4000mhz range and I'd recommend the Trident Z or Trident Z Neos kits for best compatibility, although, there are definitely some Ripjaws kits with very good ICs as well. For Corsair, I'd avoid the Vengeance kits and only focus on the Dominator Platinum series if you are keen on going with Corsair. I've seen a lot more success from builders using G.Skill than Corsair with high speed memory kits on Ryzen 3000 so far though.