What tech specs need to be the same?

[KillswitchScar]

Hey. The motherboard i'm using right now only has 2 dimm slots and i was going to upgrade to 2x4gb sticks of RAM from my current 2x2gb. When i upgrade my board in the future what specs on the two sets of ram have to be the same in order to use them in quad channel? I know in theory the brand and speed should not matter as the ram will run at the slowest sets speed by default. What about timings and such? Thanks.

 

[RealBeast]

It is best to buy a set of 4 sticks that is certified for quad channel. You may be able to run mixed sticks at the slowest speed and timings of any in the mix but it is far from certain.

 

[Tradesman1]

What mobo? if not a X79 it won't run quad channel, so if upgrading and it will take 4 or 8GB sticks take that route to what you want, if say a 1150, 1155 or AMD mobo it may have four slots but will only run dual channel (even with 4 sticks) want to use the least amount of sticks you can as it's less stress on the MC (memory controller)

 

[KillswitchScar]

I'm undecided on the motherboard as i'm not upgrading for a while. But for example lets say i have a set of 2x2gb g.skill ram right now in my 2 dimm slots. Now i decided to take those out and put in 2x4gb sticks of the exact same specs and series. would i be able to use the new set with the old set when i get a MOBO with 4 dimm slots? Obviously having sticks that all came in one kit would be better, but would it damage the pc if i were to use the two sets with different capacity?

 

[Tradesman1]

You could try it and might get them to play, but don't count on it, let it be a bonus surprise, get the amount of DRAM you NEED.....if you go this route and try, any problems give me a shout, DRAM is sort of a specialty of mine

 

[KillswitchScar]

You could try it and might get them to play, but don't count on it, let it be a bonus surprise, get the amount of DRAM you NEED.....if you go this route and try, any problems give me a shout, DRAM is sort of a specialty of mine

Thanks, I love tinkering so as long as i'm fairly sure it won't blow my PC up, i'll try. Again thanks for your time

 

[Tradesman1]

No problem, that's why I'm out here