mixing RAMs of different brands and capacity

[thelonewolf]

I have a MSI P55 GD65 mobo which has 4 RAM slots. 2 of them are occupied by two ZION 2 GB DDR3 sticks i.e. A total of 4 GB RAM. I wanted to increase my RAM to 16 GB by putting additional 4 GB and 8 GB sticks of different brands in the remaining two empty slots. Is it possible to do so?

 

[DSzymborski]

While it will possibly work, there's also a good chance that it won't - as PC parts go, RAM modules are very temperamental and you won't really know until you try. I've had people with a stew of oddball RAM manage without any significant problems and RAM that throws a fuss at non-identical RAM that's fairly close and by the same manufacturer.

 

[SkyBill40]

If you do that, it likely won't POST. The DIMM slots need to be filled evenly, meaning that each slot needs to have the same size DIMM in it.

 

[thelonewolf]

Okay then I guess it would be much safer to fill the slots with the same brand and capacity sticks or completely replace the present ones by some other brand.

 

[SkyBill40]

The very best chance you have of RAM working as advertised would be to buy it in a matched pair or four stick set. That way you know that all of the RAM has been tested to work together and without incident. You can mix vendors of memory usually without a problem as that's not important. What is important is the SPD rating, memory timings, voltage, and capacity. If any of those things are too far off, it's likely your RAM won't work and your system won't POST.

 

[Tradesman1]

ANY time you mix DRAM - even two identical sets it can be problematic (in fact I have matching sets from three different manufacturers on the bench right now that don't want to play without voltage and timings adjustments - have seen matching sets that wouldn't play period. Mixing vendors can be even harder, while they might play nice - they might use different memory chips (different models or brands. Might have different PCB and even the solder can affect how the sticks run.