New ram upgrade and fsb question

[devilhanzou]

Okay I am trying to decide on a ram upgrade the first link is what I currently have, I could get another 4 gigs and have 8 gigs of ram total, unfortuently they dont make 4 gig sticks in this exact model, I know mixing ram is bad, but the other two links are identical in timing, brand, mhz etc...just a nice model with heat spreaders. I would think with everything else being the same that the insides are maybe identical? Any ideas or should I just maybe get rid of what I have and buy the 8 gigs of one of the other two I linked? Also I have a Asus m4a78Te mobo, I just installed new cooling on my Amd Phenom II 3.0ghz denab chip so I could do some overclocking if you can unlock the multipliers on the chip I have never looked if I can run everything I want maxed out I never saw the point. I also have a 4850x2 not that it will matter for this questions but the ram I currently have and am looking at is 1600mhz, and my FSB max is 2600mhz is this a problem in anyway,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 //current model


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=tb9sd53b2sjg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

 

[o1die]

I've mixed ram brands and speeds before, though it's not recommended. Too bad you didn't do this when 8 gb was going for $25 recently. What brand and speed of ram do you have now?

 

[blazorthon]

Mixing different RAM kits can fail, sometimes for obvious reasons and sometimes for seemingly no reason. The more different the two kits are the less likely it will work. Capacity usually isn't an important difference but frequency, voltage, and timings are among the important differences.

I would recommend buying a single kit with enough or greater capacity for you needs instead of mixing kits. Preferably look for a kit you like in the QVL, qualified vender list of your motherboard. Memory kits on that list have been tested by the manufacturer of the motherboard and are more likely to work.

If you can't choose a kit from the QVL you can try a kit that's similar to your own in every way but capacity (preferably the same lineup of models) or similar to a kit on the QVL.

You can try mixing your memory kits but if it doesn't work you would have wasted your money if you can't return them for a full refund including shipping.

 

[devilhanzou]

Okay maybe I didnt write it out clearly, Im bad at that sometimes lol. The first link on the page is the ram in the computer now the G.skill ddr3-1600 pc3-12800 4 gigs. I know mixing ram is not good my question is the links below it are both two kits of the same brand, voltage, timings, etc...I can obviously just get 8 gigs and be okay, but I wonder if they are the same sticks inside and you are paying for the heat shielding, if all the stats are the same. Other questions is if my ram is 1600 mhz and my front side bus speed is not will i get better peformance turning it down, I put the mobo stats above just cant see them right now.

 

[o1die]

I sold two sets of ram recently with a foxconn am3 board; told the new owner that it was ok to run the two brands and speeds together if the motherboard ram speed was set in manual mode to the slower ram speed of 1333. The performance difference of 1333 versus 1600 is very small. Go for value with your brand selection; I always get the best rebate deal.

 

[blazorthon]

You technically don't have an FSB on AMD Phenom II systems, you have the northbridge frequency instead. It basically does what the FSB did, linking the CPU and memory but it also controls the L3 CPU cache. By default it has a BLCK multiplier of ten so the default BLCK of 200MHz gives it a default frequency of 2000MHz.

I don't see a problem with it being left at 2000MHz, I have mine set at about 2000MHz with my memory at ~1673MHz (25.5% BLCK overclock) on my Phenom II x6 1090T by reducing it's multiplier from 10 to 8.

It's hard to say if the memory modules are similar or not. Even if they are that still isn't a guarantee that this will work (although that does increase the chance of it working).

Your RAM is an older model designed for the P55 platform, one kit you looked at doesn't say anything about being designed for any particular platform, and the other is designed for the P67/Z68 platforms.

They should all work on all of the platforms regardless of this but they might not work together.

Why do you want to know if the two kits you are looking at are logically identical? I can't imagine why this info would be useful unless you plan on mixing RAM and in that case you might as well get two of one model instead of both kits or get a single kit with enough capacity for your usage.


Lowering the frequency of something could not possibly directly offer increased performance. It may indirectly increase performance by giving something else headroom for it's frequency to be increased or it's latency lowered but decreasing your northbridge frequency would lower the frequency of your L3 cache (a negligent performance decrease) and lower the bandwidth of the connection between the memory controller and the CPU unless you increase the BLCK to counteract that.

 

[devilhanzou]

Best answer selected by devilhanzou.

 

[devilhanzou]

hey sorry was out for RL so wasnt able to respond back, ya I went ahead and ordered 8 gigs of http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

Ya u answered the questions and I am just going to take out the older ddr3 I got it right when ddr3 came out and replace with 8 gigs of this ram, and if I want another 8 its newer and will be around for awhile. The other two newer rams I linked that were nearly identical, that was what I was wondering what the diffrences were, but the ram I have selected is for AMD 790 mobo's I do not know how much that matters but my board is a M4A78T-E and I personally really like the board, just wish I understood the Bios a little better not as user friendly as some of Asus other boards mobos in the past. So besides the general overclocking done on my 4850x2 by the catalyst program, any recommendations OC or not for when I get my new ram in for peformance? Anything I should adjust on my mobo? I never updates the bios or anything I say if it aint broke dont try fixing lol....and besides just playing around all the new games I play run maxed out. The only thing I have tried doing was putting in the timings but when I open up the advanced settings to enter timings I get this list:
TCL
TRCD
TRP
TRAS
TRTP
TRC
TWR
TRRD
TRWTTO
TWRRD
TWTR
TWRWR
TRDRD
and if I have two sticks with the timings 9-9-9-24 I am sure I can find on net were to put those numbers in if you do not know off hand but what the hell goes in the other slots?

 

[blazorthon]

I don't know each of those values for your kit or even my memory. You could contact the manufacturer if you don't find them all on the manufacture's website. G.Skill should help you get everything running.