Cheapest way to get 4 or 6GB

[Yantorsen]

Basically I have a 4GB of OCZ DDR2 RAM, but one of the 2GB sticks has failed. Basically I'm not sure what to do because one of the sticks still works and would be good to use it still, but my RAM is no longer available as far as I know.

So the questions I need answering are:

1, Will any other set work with my existing stick, if so which ones?

2, I can only find 2x1GB sets of 2GB which would not allow the stick I already have to work in dual channel, so does anybody know where I can individual 2GB sticks? And would it even work in dual channel with my existing stick anyway?

3, 2GB sets are not really any cheaper than 4GB sets, so thus I may as well get a 4GB set and have 6GB, if the above questions are not fruitfully answered, so what 4GB sets would work with my existing stick?

Thanks for your time

[Zhaoman]

what speed is your ram running at? you just need a same capacity stick of ram that runs at the same speed for it to work. there are plenty of single 2gb ddr2 ram sticks on scan.

http://www.scan.co.uk

thats the website.

it's not too expensive to bag yourself a pair of ddr2 ram these days so getting a new pair altogether might not cost much more than getting a single stick.

[Yantorsen]

I was under the impression though that they had to be "matched" or at the very least be based on the same chipset, which not all DIMMS are. Is that a load of rubbish then? My currents sticks are only at 667MHz.

[Golden Dragoon]

Idealy the should be matched, but we don't live in an ideal world, I am running 8gb 2 sets of 2 different 2x2gb, sure they may well both be geil ram, but they are different speeds (the slower set runs fine at the speed of the others with a little voltage help ), and am pretty sure they are different ic's
My brothers pc has some kingston value ram running in dc mode with some expensive crucial.
It isn't a nessesity to have them matched, but it can help with troubleshooting incase one of the sticks isn't fully compatible for some reason.

Edit: Oh and if you get 2x1gb, most motherboards will allow you to populate channel 1 with them and put the 2gb in channel 2 and it should work as dc as previously my brother was running 1x1gb and 2x512mb just fine.

[Salazaar]

AFAIK OCZ have a lifetime warranty on their memory, why not just contact them and get the duff stick replaced?

http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/warranty/

[DigiGuru]

Also, which OS are you running?

If you're running any 32-bit OS, then there's no point having more than 4GB, as Windows can't address it unless you're running Windows 2003 Enterprise or Datacentre editions.

If you're running 64-bit, however, then XP x64, Vista x64 and Win7 x64 can address the extra memory.

[Lee H]

AFAIK OCZ have a lifetime warranty on their memory, why not just contact them and get the duff stick replaced?

http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/warranty/

Yeah, get the memory sent back to them.

If the memory is not available any longer they may well substitute the memory for another 4 Gb offering that's available.

[Yantorsen]

Idealy the should be matched, but we don't live in an ideal world, I am running 8gb 2 sets of 2 different 2x2gb, sure they may well both be geil ram, but they are different speeds (the slower set runs fine at the speed of the others with a little voltage help ), and am pretty sure they are different ic's
My brothers pc has some kingston value ram running in dc mode with some expensive crucial.
It isn't a nessesity to have them matched, but it can help with troubleshooting incase one of the sticks isn't fully compatible for some reason.

Edit: Oh and if you get 2x1gb, most motherboards will allow you to populate channel 1 with them and put the 2gb in channel 2 and it should work as dc as previously my brother was running 1x1gb and 2x512mb just fine.

Why do they ideally need to be matched? As long as they work is there actually much of a speed difference? I was under the impression though that the ICs had to be the same in order to run in dual channel.

Could you explain further last bit again? I'm not sure what you mean, how will it be able to populate 1 channel with two DIMMs?

AFAIK OCZ have a lifetime warranty on their memory, why not just contact them and get the duff stick replaced?

[can't post url due to lack of posts on my part]

I've rang OCZ and they told me that the Life Time Warranty is only valid the US, and I'm in the UK.

Also, which OS are you running?

If you're running any 32-bit OS, then there's no point having more than 4GB, as Windows can't address it unless you're running Windows 2003 Enterprise or Datacentre editions.

If you're running 64-bit, however, then XP x64, Vista x64 and Win7 x64 can address the extra memory.

Yeah I know, I'm running Vista x64.

[Zhaoman]

'matched' sticks simply mean the two sticks have been tested, and guaranteed, by the manufacturer to work together. as long as the two sticks are the same size and speed it doesn't matter if they are packaged together or not. my cousin got a new stick of memory for her laptop and it was a different speed from her original one but they still work fine; although im not sure if they are in dual channel. one thing you can be sure of: same size, same speed = dual channel ready

[SiM]

I've rang OCZ and they told me that the Life Time Warranty is only valid the US, and I'm in the UK.

That is odd. I was able to RMA OCZ ram that I bought them second hand from these forums. I had to send it to Holland to get a replacement pair. All in all I was very impressed with their customer service.
http://forums.hexus.net/classifieds-...-4-18-a-2.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Nick it!!

Not that I am condoning theft!!

[Yantorsen]

'matched' sticks simply mean the two sticks have been tested, and guaranteed, by the manufacturer to work together. as long as the two sticks are the same size and speed it doesn't matter if they are packaged together or not. my cousin got a new stick of memory for her laptop and it was a different speed from her original one but they still work fine; although im not sure if they are in dual channel. one thing you can be sure of: same size, same speed = dual channel ready

Well I know speed doesn't matter you can just over or under clock one of the sticks to match the other. But I've always been told they have to have the same chip layout on the PCB of the DIMM, can anyone confirm this as true or false?

[Yantorsen]

That is odd. I was able to RMA OCZ ram that I bought them second hand from these forums. I had to send it to Holland to get a replacement pair. All in all I was very impressed with their customer service.

That's odd, do you know how old your stick(s) was? OCZ have been really difficult to get through to, always engaged, but when I did get through the bloke (who sounded American, but I did ring the UK number) said he thought the Life Time Warranty only applied in the US, but he wasn't sure, so he said to ring back later. I haven't been able to get through since, engaged the whole time.

[Golden Dragoon]

Why do they ideally need to be matched? As long as they work is there actually much of a speed difference? I was under the impression though that the ICs had to be the same in order to run in dual channel.

Could you explain further last bit again? I'm not sure what you mean, how will it be able to populate 1 channel with two DIMMs?

Idealy because matched pairs are tested to work together with no problems, as for the last bit, most motherboards have 4 memory slots even though they only have two channels most of the time they are arranged channel 1 c.2 c.1 c.2, so if you populate the first slot with say 1gb of ram, you can get it to work in dual channel mode by populating slot 2 and slot 4 with 512mb sticks. I am not 100% sure if that is still relevent today as the last time I set up a system like that was in the athlon xp days (my brothers old pc) and I know that the A64's have intergrated mem controllers, but I can't see why it wouldn't work anymore.

[SiM]

That's odd, do you know how old your stick(s) was? OCZ have been really difficult to get through to, always engaged, but when I did get through the bloke (who sounded American, but I did ring the UK number) said he thought the Life Time Warranty only applied in the US, but he wasn't sure, so he said to ring back later. I haven't been able to get through since, engaged the whole time.

Forget phoning them. I did it all online. Go to their support forum, the guys there are very helpful.
Here is my thread:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...233#post316233

[Zhaoman]

When in doubt, check wikipedia:

"Modules rated at different speeds can be run in dual-channel mode, although the motherboard will then run all memory modules at the speed of the slowest module. Some motherboards, however, have compatibility issues with certain brands or models of memory when attempting to use them in dual-channel mode. For this reason, it is generally advised to use identical pairs of memory modules, which is why most memory manufacturers now sell "kits" of matched-pair DIMMs. Several motherboard manufacturers only support configurations where a "matched pair" of modules are used." and it goes on to state that 'matched' means same IC layout too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture

but most mobos these days don't need 'matched' pairs, all of the memory from the major brands have been tested with all the mobos from the major brands so compatibility shouldn't be an issue with any 'odd' pair. from my humble experience, same capacity and same speed has always worked