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Question

RAM upgrade

May 12, 2015 12:38AM PDT

So I have Windows 7 64bit with 2x2 Gb at 1333 Mhz Kingston RAM. Motherboard is Gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 P55-US3L, and CPU Intel I5 650 (2x3.2 Ghz). I want to upgrade RAM for now. I have a friend that runs a Computer store and asked him for recommendation. He said to me that if I leave my current RAM memories and add 4 GB at lets say 1600 MHz, they will work at 1333 Mhz. Same thing will happen if I remove the old ones and insert 8 GB or 2x4 GB at 1600 MHz - they will remain locked at 1333 Mhz which is weird to me. In order to unlock the higher speed I need to overclock my CPU. I checked my motherboard specifications and it says that it supports RAM speeds up to 2200 MHz. So the question is, is it true that if I insert faster modules and remove the old ones, the speed will remain locked at 1333 MHz? Is the difference between 1333 and 1600 MHz or even faster noticeable? I'm asking all of this because the price difference between 1333 and 1600 MHz exists, and not to mention the faster ones. Thank you for reading!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Mixing speeds....
May 12, 2015 12:48AM PDT

Has been well discussed. Let's not duplicate that discussion and end with "runs at the lowest speed in the set."

Besides there is so little to be gained by overclocking so why not share what's leading you here. Some folk are doing this for video games but for that we change up the GPU.
Bob

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Reply
May 12, 2015 1:13AM PDT

Well I'm a graphic designer, casual gamer (I play only one game and it runs well so far), and lately running Photoshop and any other program (CorelDraw, Illustrator, Chrome) causes slow performance. I checked my performance monitor and concluded that I need higher capacity RAM. There's a trilemma if I should save money and add 4GB at 1333 MHz, add 4GB of faster RAM or replace my current RAM with 8 GB of faster RAM (that friend told me that even if I do this, speed will be locked at 1333 MHz). So I'm checking with you guys if the information I have at the moment is true, is the third option worth at all since frequency does not bring much.

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I would just bump the RAM but there's more speed in
May 12, 2015 1:32AM PDT

SSD. I took a simple laptop http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0AJ2EJ3587 and changed out the HDD for a SSD. Boot times and load times plummeted. Boot from cold is under 15 seconds. Resume is a few seconds and from hibernation is 5 seconds.

As to Chrome, some use other browsers if there is a speed issue. I usually reset Chrome to see if some addon was the cause.

I think a SSD would have far more impact.
Bob

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Answer
Your friend is correct
May 12, 2015 1:21AM PDT

The I5-650 at stock speed will support 1333 ram.....that's the max ram speed.
If you want to run the ram at 1600 speed then you OC.

My opinion.....don't go there.
Not much upside but a bunch of downside.

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Answer
Adding to recommendations...
May 12, 2015 11:04AM PDT

Here's the options available for RAM on your MB over Crucial.com

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/Giga-Byte/ga-p55-us3l

Recommend adding another 8GB for the use you describe.....that'll give you a total of 12GB.

Also Crucial guarantees their recommended RAM will work in your MB. Most of what I saw was DR3-1600/PC3-12800 or faster and all things considered I'd opt for that ....2 DIMMs x 4 GBs. It won't work faster in your current system than the old RAM 1333 but it would work in most newer systems at the rated speed.

Any questions...just post.

Let us know how it works out.

VAPCMD

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Bought it...
Jun 2, 2015 5:06AM PDT

Unfortunately, I haven't seen your post until now.

So, I bought 4GB of Kingston RAM, frequency 1600MHz since there wasn't 1333Mhz version available. Inserted it, and computer started. BIOS shows 8GB running at 1333Mhz, but computer freezes at Windows loading screen. Next, I tried running just the new 4GB module and it kept restarting at BIOS screen after a couple of seconds. Then I removed it, placed the old ones and it works now. Since it's evening here and store is closed, before I go to complain tomorrow, is there something I'm missing maybe (RAM is not dead, but some settings maybe)?

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Looking up
Jun 2, 2015 5:14AM PDT

I see advice to keep all the ram matched and to get to Crucial. It appears you didn't follow the advice. Get your money back. You've proven this stick is incompatible.

Settings? The way things work today the BIOS reads the SPD off the stick and sets it automatically. If the stick is incompatible, troubles follow. Again, there's a reason the above advice was given. Mostly to avoid you posting what you did.
Bob

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Answer
Solved.
Jun 4, 2015 1:09AM PDT

The problem was in compatibility with motherboard. It only supports dual side modules, the one I got was single sided. So before we found that out, I brought the computer to the store and they tried several products, Kingston HyperX at 1800 Mhz worked, price difference was ~$5.