Mixing DIMM types and sizes

simonpuk

n00b
Joined
May 27, 2020
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Hi all,
My MB is an Asus ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING.
My CPU is an i9-9900k OC'd to 4.9

I currently have 2x32Gb of Vegeance RGB pro in my system

The module model numbers are CMW64GX4M2E3200C16 (16-20-20-38) 3200Mhz

They work perfectly giving me 64GB of RAM.

I have another set of Vengeance RGB Pro (that used to be in my system) but they are 2 x 16Gb modules with the following model : CM4X16GC3200C16W4 (16-18-18-36) 3200Mhz

I run a lot of VM's, sometimes many multiple ones. I was thinking of adding the 2 x 16Gb DIMMS to fully populate the 4 slots on the MB.

Just wondered if anyone thinks this could cause performance or stability issues please ?

TIA for any help :)
 
Only one way to know for sure but I recommend preparing a bootable memtest flashdrive or disk and test them thoroughly for errors before attempting to boot windows to avoid potential OS corruption if they refuse to work together withing the OS environment.
 
If your motherboard supports that much RAM and you choose the loosest common timings it will almost certainly work. I have done the same in the past without issue. Of course, test for stability before moving forward.
 
Everything will have to run at the fastest speed/timings that all modules support.
Sometimes running 4 dimms can be more difficult to achieve the speeds, but you're not running any high spec ram, so I doubt you'll run into any issues. If you had CL14 3200MHz sticks then maybe you'd be in trouble, but CL16 should be fine.
Modern systems are a lot more forgiving for memory mis-match. I remember back in the Pentium4 days you had to get the exact production date modules - I purchased same PN from same manufacturer a year later to upgrade, and the system would not work in dual channel any more because of whatever minor design changes had been implemented. Today, I just put in an 8G+4G sticks of RAM into a Skylake system, different manufacturere and max speeds on ram, no problem - defaulted to highest spec both modules could support.
 
I was running 2x 8GB single rank sticks and 2x 16GB dual rank sticks (3000 and 3200 speed) in my X370 with minor issues (Had to run at 2800 to be stable - but I did get it stable eventually.) I move the same set, same processor, to my X570 board and have had zero issues.
Now i'm running 2x16GB single rank and 2x 16GB dual rank (all 3200) and I just hit XMP and it's been perfectly stable since.

I'm not sure how memory is on intel these days, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.
 
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