[SOLVED] My 16GB (2x8GB) Crucial XMS3 stick comes up as only 8GB on my ASRock H61MV-ITX board.

[Frooby]

Hello all.

I bought a mini-PC project on eBay recently which is based on the ASRock H61MV-ITX board ( https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H61MV-ITX/?cat=Specifications ). This is an oldish board and suits a 2nd or 3rd Gen CPU (mine has an i5-2400).

It came with "16GB" of RAM, but I was surprised to find that this was made up of two sticks - one a 'normal' 8GB stick and the other was a Crucial XMS3 dual-stick of 16GB on its own ("2x8GB").

Can anyone explain why the 16GB XMS3 Crucial effectively acts only as an 8GB when installed on its own, please?

Many thanks.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The maximum capacity of system memory is16GB ---- As stated in Memory section of specs sheet.

that means each slot supports 8GB maximum [16 divided by number of slots (2)].

 

[Frooby]

Ah! Thank you - that makes sense.

Blimey, what an expensive way for the previous owner to get 8GB

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Was probably a special price at the time, or a friend gave it to him, or he just had it already from another system. Or may be he didn't have a clue what he was buying -

 

[Frooby]

Looks like I was more stupid than the previous owner... The stick was originally part of a matched pair, and the memory size referred to that - the total 16GB - rather than the individual stick's 8GB.

Sigh... :-(