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RAM Compatibility

Komsomolitz

I'm guessing this question gets asked a lot but I was wondering if someone could break it down to me when it comes to finding out what types of ram is compatible with your motherboard?

Is it down to voltage? speed? ddr type?

The ram I'm using now is DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600MHz), Dual Channel, DIMM, 8GB Kit (2 x 4GB) etc (I've 4 memory slots though)

I'm looking to upgrade to a 32gb kit but I'd love to educate myself a bit first before making any embarrassing mistakes.

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Xenoronin

You need to look at your motherboard to find the supported RAM speeds, i.e. 1333MHz, 1600MHz, 1866MHz, etc. Your motherboard will simply decrease the speed of your RAM to it's highest supported level, so if you go higher than the max speed supported, you are just throwing money at the wall.
The RAM Type supported will be only DDR3 modules. (There are the odd instance of DDR4 and DDR3L supported motherboards, but you don't need to worry about that).
You will also be buying "Non-ECC" memory. ECC memory is business orientated RAM with error correction built in to ensure that no 0 turns into a 1 at any point in the RAM (this happens at random due to environmental, material composition and various other reasons). It's Intel that have decided that consumers don't need it. Because money.

The next logical question is, why 32GB of RAM? If you are doing heavy rendering, VM work, SCIENCE!, etc, then you get the two thumbs up. If this is for gaming, then just find another 2X4GB kit of the same kit you have now. No game workload needs over 16GB. Even 8GB is generally enough.

So I say in essence. Just buy the same kit again, but bigger.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CML16GX3M2A1600C9-Vengeance-Profile-Performance/dp/B009YOJZ5E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1493194344&sr=8-5&keywords=DDR3+corsair+1600

Edit: Also, note that RAM has become insanely expensive. If you can get away with 24GB of RAM for now, I'd go with that.

Komsomolitz

Cheers, much appreciate the insight there. I do some video rendering now and again but most frequent use of the pc is for gaming so I may just take your advice there on the extra two sticks.

TallGlass

Can I just ask, why is it you need to upgrade/add more RAM?

I ask this just to rule out any other improvements that could be made.

It's seem to becoming more common a solution these days to just throw more RAM at a machine and hope the problem goes away, sadly it won't and it will eventually just show up again!

Komsomolitz

Just future proofing it a bit on the cheap, plus i use an insane amount of browser tabs and open apps on average, gets a bit sluggish when i overdo it a bit.

Xenoronin

Yeah, it's no silver bullet, but in this case it sounds like a good option. Other silver bullets to consider are, getting an SSD and sticking your OS on it (this should be top of everyone's upgrade list). A clean install in general can breathe fresh life into a PC if it's become cluttered over the years. CPU upgrade if you aren't at the top level for your CPU socket. i.e. Upgrading from a Pentium, i3 or i5, to an i7 can be a decent leap if gaming (the motherboard CPU socket is important here as it limits what generation you can upgrade on). Overclocking (if possible) is also a decent way to keep an End of Life PC ticking away for a bit longer.

Edit: Also an overlooked piece of advice. Clean out your PC of dust every few months (varies based on location). It won't make it run faster in general, but stops it overworking due to heat insulation from the dust coating.