So this is the ram kit i have currently installed on my desktop:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148662


This is the ram kit i want to get

http://www.crucial.com/ProductDisplay?urlRequestType=Base&catalogId=10151&categoryId=&productId=811502&urlLangId=-1&langId=-1&top_category=&parent_category_rn=&storeId=10151



The timing is not listed on the crucial ram kit. The voltage, speed and pin type are all the same.

The only difference is that one has a CAS latency of 9 and the other has a CAS latency of 11. How bad is this to mix these differing latency numbers?

If they even work together... it will default to the worst settings between the two.

I wouldn't do it.



/e What is make/model of your motherboard?

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 14 2017 12:31am

from what ive read the worst settings isnt that big of a deal? i would probably rather get 8 extra gb of ram, and suffer 0.01% performance loss?


mobo is ASRock Z77 Extreme4

This post was edited by noob_whacker on Jul 14 2017 12:32am

If you insist on using TWO RAM kits in the place of one...at least get the stuff you already have.


Or just get a 16GB kit...

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZKw323/gskill-memory-f31600c9d16gsr

I wouldn't.

Just get a 16gb kit, Or more of the one you have.

the one i have now, i bought for $58 back in 2013. it is now being sold for like $80 or $90.

The ram i am looking at is only $55.

I know alot of people suggest not doing it. But i dont understand why? Yea the weakest link will be the one that bottlenecks the other ram set. But i dont think ram speeds are really noticeably different in most applications?

That's IF it even works. Yes it's all Crucial RAM, but it's two wildly different families of Crucial RAM.


/e The IC chips on the RAM sticks are totally different.

Even if you got the identical set of RAM, to match what you have...the IC chips will probably be different. But at least they are in the same family.


The RAM you have now is doing 1.6 billion operations per second. You really don't want to throw a monkey wrench into that.

This post was edited by Ghot on Jul 14 2017 12:50am

I used to mix and match RAM all the time. they do default to the slowest stick int he bunch.
If it works, stability is usually a crapshoot.
Had an old am3 rig with 12gbs of mix n matched ram and it would blue screen whenever I went over 10gbs used, it was fine before that though.

Overall, don't do it unless you absolutely have to.

This post was edited by DCSS on Jul 14 2017 09:58am

Other than brand / model differences, what was different between the 2 sets? CAS latency, timing, the MHz?


hmmm. also, so since the common consensus seems to be to get the same exact ram, what if i get this kit, that is 2 x 8gb ram. so this way i would upgrade. but any chance i could just add these 2x 8gb of ram, with my 2x 4gb ram? SAME BRAND, SAME MODEL (or very similar model), but DIFFERENT SIZE STICKS?

would this just decrease chance of compatibility issues? or is there some issue where the 8 gb and 4 gb dont mix well also? so instead of just going from 8gb to 16 gb, i can go from 8gb to 24 gb of ram?

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Ballistix-PC3-12800-240-Pin-BLS2KIT8G3D1609DS1S00/dp/B006YG9EEW/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1500050927&sr=1-5&keywords=16%20gb%20ram

This post was edited by noob_whacker on Jul 14 2017 10:55am

it could still be unstable.