[Slipery]

Hey everyone,

So I recently decided to boost my aging desktop with an HD 5770 and a new 23 inch 1920x1080 monitor. The rest of the PC is as follows:

E6550
Asus P5K board
Antec 500W PSU that came in Sonata III case
and 2 Gigs of OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 800 5-5-5-15 RAM.
My operating system is Vista Ultimate 64-bit

I play games like Empire/Napolean Total War, and some of the popular first person shooters that are out..

I would like to upgrade my RAM with another 2 gigs, but I am wondering what is the best way to do this? I could buy another 2 sticks of identical RAM, but this is going to run me at least $85-100 with taxes and shipping in (I am in Canada). Is it unadvisable to use the RAM of a different brand in with 2 gigs of ocz RAM? What if it is the same timings and it is also ddr2 800?

Anyways, thanks a bunch.

This is my RAM here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...c_dual_channel

[Xantor]

Originally Posted by Slipery

Hey everyone,

So I recently decided to boost my aging desktop with an HD 5770 and a new 23 inch 1920x1080 monitor. The rest of the PC is as follows:

E6550
Asus P5K board
Antec 500W PSU that came in Sonata III case
and 2 Gigs of OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 800 5-5-5-15 RAM.
My operating system is Vista Ultimate 64-bit

I play games like Empire/Napolean Total War, and some of the popular first person shooters that are out..

I would like to upgrade my RAM with another 2 gigs, but I am wondering what is the best way to do this? I could buy another 2 sticks of identical RAM, but this is going to run me at least $85-100 with taxes and shipping in (I am in Canada). Is it unadvisable to use the RAM of a different brand in with 2 gigs of ocz RAM? What if it is the same timings and it is also ddr2 800?

Anyways, thanks a bunch.

This is my RAM here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...c_dual_channel

Using different brands of RAM on the same mobo is fine. Corsair or G.Skill is getting to be a lot more popular with gamers right now, I've never used OCZ though, but I can only give praise for Corsair/G.Skill RAM.

Cheapest 2x2GB set overall:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820161183

Little bit better performance but a little more expensive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

Both are free shipping but I'm not sure about Canada, could use a CPU/PSU upgrade too.

[Slipery]

Thanks for the advice.

You linked 2 sets of RAM but I already have 2 gigs so I am only looking for another 2 GB set. And I am also not looking to spend a lot.. That is besides the issue though. I have no plans on updating my mobo/cpu/psu.. Probably at the end of 2011 I will buy an entire new system. So these are temporary fixes to play some older games at highest quality and some newer games on medium.

My only concern is Vista being a big hog and whether for some of the games like Empire total war and perhaps other games requiring more RAM.

[Slipery]

For example, will running this RAM with mine be an issue?

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820231098

[Xantor]

Originally Posted by Slipery

Thanks for the advice.

You linked 2 sets of RAM but I already have 2 gigs so I am only looking for another 2 GB set. And I am also not looking to spend a lot.. That is besides the issue though. I have no plans on updating my mobo/cpu/psu.. Probably at the end of 2011 I will buy an entire new system. So these are temporary fixes to play some older games at highest quality and some newer games on medium.

My only concern is Vista being a big hog and whether for some of the games like Empire total war and perhaps other games requiring more RAM.

Sorry about that! Misread the post.

Here's some pretty cheap RAM with good performance that looks reliable enough:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211066

[Slipery]

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking at that RAM but I chose the one I listed above because it was also 5-5-5-15 instead of 5-5-5-18 like the one you listed.

One is 1.8V-2V and the other is just 1.8V.

I really don't want to deal with any compatability issues once I buy these, so perhaps it would just be easier to buy a 4 GB kit for $100 and sell my RAM to my brother for like $30?

Unless you can forsee there being no issue at all?

[Xantor]

Originally Posted by Slipery

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking at that RAM but I chose the one I listed above because it was also 5-5-5-15 instead of 5-5-5-18 like the one you listed.

One is 1.8V-2V and the other is just 1.8V.

I really don't want to deal with any compatability issues once I buy these, so perhaps it would just be easier to buy a 4 GB kit for $100 and sell my RAM to my brother for like $30?

Unless you can forsee there being no issue at all?

There will be no issue. The times there are issues mixing RAM are when you try to put DDR3 in a DDR2 mobo (pins on DDR3 are designed to prevent this though), try to mix channels (RAM comes in channels, single is one stick working on its own, dual is two sticks working in unison, triple is three and so on) e.g. put one half a dual channel kit in one slot on a mobo then another half of a different dual channel kit in the connected slot on said mobo.

For example my mobo has 6 RAM slots, memory standard is DDR3 triple channel, allowing for 2 sets of different triple channel DDR3 memory in those 6 slots. The 6 slots are color coded, 3 are black and 3 are light blue, if I put 2 sticks of one triple channel set into the black slots and then 1 stick of a different set into the 3rd black slot and tried to boot the computer it wouldn't POST, just wouldn't boot or would boot and some sort of error would happen. Nothing hardware damaging. Mobos support RAM on a channel/DDR# basis, most DDR2 mobos have 4 slots allowing for 2 sets of dual channel DDR2 RAM to be used which is the case with your mobo. Two different RAM channels don't interact with each other, they overclock seperately, have seperate timings, but both interface with the CPU and both sets are utilized by the OS.

So no, after years of RAM mixing I'm 100% sure there won't be any issue.


Simple explanation, you want to put the stick in THIS slo(i)t and the other one can go in THAT one. But don't try and put it in the PCI slot, it graphics processes from there. Also...DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS.

[Slipery]

Hey guys... So I bought the 2 Gigs of G-skill DDR 2-800 PC2-6400, 5-5-5-15.

Exact same as my OCZ. I installed it on my Asus P5K motherboard and now whenever I boot it is just stuck in the ASUS motherboard screen that I get on boot-up. :/ there is $80 bucks not very well spent.

Any ideas?

[King107s]

You have not been able to boot at all? Take the new RAM out and try it again. Then take the new RAM and try it on its own, try different slots as well.

I doubt there is a compatability issue but you never know.

You could also try updating your BIOS.

You should also check to see if the voltages required for the Gskill are the same as your other RAM then make sure its set correctly in your BIOS.

Edit: I just checked and you should set your RAM voltage to 1.8V which should be acceptable for both sets.

[Slipery]

Nevermind.. First time installing RAM, and I didnt push in the sticks hard enough, just pushed them in halfway and tried to lock them down myself which resulted in the lock things sticking out and the RAM not being seated.

Works fine now, thanks.

[Slipery]

Sorry to post again, but I have a new issue..

My computer is crashing in all of the games I play. It just crashes to desktop. My Mobo is asus p5k, cpu is e6550 and video card is ati 5770.. I have 2 gigs of ocz xtc gold ddr 2 800, and now 2 gigs of g-skill and same stats.

All 4 RAM slots of my motherboard are full now.

Could this be a motherboard issue or a compatibility issue with my RAM? I just spent $80 on this RAM and I am a university student so money is scarce, so I don't just want to take it out.

Any ideas as what to do? Only my GPU is overclocked.

[King107s]

Originally Posted by Slipery

Sorry to post again, but I have a new issue..

My computer is crashing in all of the games I play. It just crashes to desktop. My Mobo is asus p5k, cpu is e6550 and video card is ati 5770.. I have 2 gigs of ocz xtc gold ddr 2 800, and now 2 gigs of g-skill and same stats.

All 4 RAM slots of my motherboard are full now.

Could this be a motherboard issue or a compatibility issue with my RAM? I just spent $80 on this RAM and I am a university student so money is scarce, so I don't just want to take it out.

Any ideas as what to do? Only my GPU is overclocked.

Dont overclock the GPU and see how it does. I'll be tthats your problem. OCing the gpu doesnt really give you that much of a gain any way...

Now that you have your RAM working its time to check it. Run Memtest from boot and let it cycle through several times to make sure you dont have any errors. You should also run Prime95 blend for several hours (be sure to enable error checking) to check for over all system stability. If you get through both tests without faults you're system is probably fine and its video card that doesn't like the over clock.

[Slipery]

*sigh*

Yet again I jumped the gun... My RAM works in all of my games, and even in Empire:Total War, except it crashes when I load one of my saved campaigns in Empire Total War. I can play a random battle and I can start a new campaign and I can play Dirt 2, Battlefield, etc, but can't load my awesome United Provinces campaign :/ Looks like a Total War issue. Thanks for the help

[BigDuke6]

Hi..,I'm trying to upgrade my system to four gb of memory from two.I'm installing the same memory as I have but my comp. won't even post with the two new sticks.My mobo is an asus maximus formula and the ram is corsair dominator pc8500 1066.mhz.I have not done any tweaking in bios so everything is stock.I have noticed that the voltage on the ram is different.The installed sticks say 2.1v and the new says 2.2v if that makes a difference.Thanks a lot.....