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upgrading am2+ system, why is there amd only ddr2

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Shiozaki

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2014
EBay has a bunch of 2x4 ddr2 kits for cheap and I'm scared to buy one because I have no idea what I'm doing or why they say AMD only or if they over heat and explode.

Someone tell me what to buy lol.
 
Honestly at this point if you are looking for system upgrades you want to either go Intel as even a 2 generation old I5 is far and away faster than what is sitting on your AM2, or wait until Ryzen is released and do a full platform swap. If this were a laptop and all you needed was more ram to prevent slowdowns, or an SSD to reduce caching speeds Id say upgrade those parts, but AM2+ is ancient in terms of desktop tech.
 
I am not sure why there is "amd only" ram. I think when I checked into it I was told it was just a different way to market.

IIRC the high point for DDR2 was 1066mhz, and I am not sure if the Kingston/AMD troubles existed back in DDR2 days. But if you want to be absolutely certain you get compatible hardware then see if you can find something on the QVL (qualified vendor list), which you should find on your mobo spec page somewhere. You aren't limited to the QVL but those have been tested by the company and are *supposed* to work (I have heard of times where QVL listed items did not work, but it is still the safest)
 
I am not sure why there is "amd only" ram. I think when I checked into it I was told it was just a different way to market. No, this is not why. There certainly is DDR2 RAM that will only run on AMD systems. I can attest to it. I'm tech support for a private school and this summer I bought a gaggle of those "AMD only" DDR2 RAM kits off ebay to upgrade our school's computers to 4 gb to be able to run Win 10 more efficiently. Most of the machines are AMD but some of them were Intel based and most of the Intel based machines would no boot off of that RAM even though the frequency was appropriate for both. This is very common with OEM products. They can be very proprietary. However, after market generic retail RAM kits will work on either - like GSKill or OCZ. With the coming of the DDR3 generation I think AMD abandoned that proprietary scheme and there is now more universality.

IIRC the high point for DDR2 was 1066mhz, and I am not sure if the Kingston/AMD troubles existed back in DDR2 days. But if you want to be absolutely certain you get compatible hardware then see if you can find something on the QVL (qualified vendor list), which you should find on your mobo spec page somewhere. You aren't limited to the QVL but those have been tested by the company and are *supposed* to work (I have heard of times where QVL listed items did not work, but it is still the safest)
 
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