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Thread: Ram Question

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2004
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    Sunshine Coast Queensland
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    Default Ram Question

    Hey guys,
    I built this box with 32gig of ram comprising 4 x 8gig sims.
    At least one of the sims is faulty and the shop (who I would love to name but won't) is being extremely recalcitrant about warranty.
    I know ram has to match, but does it have to be the same brand, but does it matter if it's another brand?
    Cheers
    Smidsy

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
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    Oberon, NSW
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    Default

    Another brand with the same type, size, speed and latencies (ie. CAS timings) should be perfectly OK.

    But I'll make no guarantees... mainly because many single sticks of RAM I've bought in the past have not performed well at their "rated timings" although they've also often worked fine at more liberal timings. (I won't say more; I'm tired of standing on that soapbox!)

    Some older mobos are extremely sensitive to mismatched RAM, while others just shrug it off. Newer generations of 'putas, particularly recent Intel chip sets are far more forgiving.

    If you're lucky enough to have a forgiviing mobo then, if you can't find an exact match, a replacement with faster speed or CAS timings should be good; the 'puta should configure it the same as the slowest stick you have installed. (Lots of shoulds in there though. )

    So... how old is the tech in your new build?
    I may be weird, but I'm saving up to become eccentric.

    - Andy Mc

  4. #3
    Join Date
    May 2004
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    Default

    The ram I bought is 2133mhz, but memtest is calling it 2400.
    I built this box about six weeks ago, (specs below) my build rationale is the best CPU I can afford (usually low to mid range) with as much ram as I can stuff it in and I needed six sata ports hence the MB.
    The cpu had no graphics so I needed a graphics card anyway, and that one will run three monitors and 4500dpi - I'll only have two monitors and I'll run about 2500-3000dpi.

    Win10 installed easily enough and the box booted with absolutely no problems - except that it was unstable as hell and VLC, Deluge & Calibre refused to run - they would install and crash.
    Memtest showed bad ram, I've pulled two of the sims and memtest is now showing all clear so it's one of the removed sims - I need to install those one at a time and determine which is the dud.
    The power supply is way overkill, I didn't do any research - the old box was running 500w and I was putting two extra HD's in this box so I thought 600w and got the 650 as it's what was available.
    The case I love, the HD's are behind/underneath the board and the cable managment is excellent, all I did was swap the two 1250rpm fans that came with the case for a pair of coolermaster 2000rpm's.
    I'll put more fans in when I can work out how to power them - the board only has two case fans but it also has GPU and a second CPU fan plugs so I'm thinking maybe use those to power more fans.
    (I'm an ex man arts teacher and I tend to over-engineer the crap out of everything)

    The computer shop (which I am sorely tempted to name and shame) are being extremely recalcitrant in regard to warranty - first they tried to fob me off to Gskill, now they are saying I have to return the ram (thereby disabling the computer) and wait weeks while they send it off site for testing.
    I abused the absolute hell out of them this morning so I am resigned to the fact that the scumbags have ripped off a disabled pensioner by about $125
    Anyway, here's the specs.

    Intel Core i5 9400F 6 Core LGA1151 2.9GHz CPU Processor
    Asus Radeon RX 570 Expedition 4G Graphics Card
    Asus TUF Z390 Plus Gaming ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
    Cooler Master MasterBox NR600 Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Case
    G.Skill 32G (4x8G) F4-2400C15Q-32GRR PC4-19200 / DDR4 2400 Mhz
    Cooler Master 650W MWE 80+ Bronze Power Supply

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Osaka
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    Default

    Go through the process...installing all the memory separately. Figure out if the pairs work by themselves, or if it is a single chip gone. Maybe the pairs aren't happy together. I could be that the "misreporting" of speed is that it is telling you the speed of the other pair - maybe you have to set it lower in BIOS. Not there to look so I dunno. If you find a single module is causing the issues...then you'll need too warranty it. I don't buy the offsite testing line. You get a bad module, you test it using either a software tester (takes minutes) or a special hardware rig (seconds). Then you give customer and exchange and send the faulty one back to supplier on RA. At worst you eat it, and charge the expense out. They are just being lazy and trying to avoid their obligations to you.

    Part of the issue is that margins on computer parts has been quite thin for some time, so they have no incentive to spend time with warranty stuff. Except you know, legal obligations and avoidance of fines. Which is actually what I don't get. People like this waste more time and effort. Some claims are going to be bogus. But the vast majority are not. So you are getting a bit of view into how they think and their psychology. Is that who you want to do business with in the future?
    Semtex fixes all

  6. #5
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    Not MSY is it? Jesus H they were bolloxed by the courts for pulling stunts like this. They've jerked me around a bit.

    The "ain't no margin" argument is BS.

    A faulty bit of hardware is a warranty thing.

    Since all the RAM is the same, swap the sticks around using 2 at a time, test them in mixed pairs and determine which is the dud.

    Use Memtest86 --> MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

    Just ring for an RA and send them back. Ask for a new pair. Offer to cover postage, or better, just rock on up.


    My thing next? Update the BIOS, set it back to some basic settings, test again. The GSKills can use specific memory profiles. One can match them in the BIOS (usually). Mine do and I can overclock the hell out of it.


    BTW, that Mobo is evil. Very nice!

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Sunshine Coast Queensland
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    Default

    Thanks guys,
    It's not MSY, although when I get a new monitor (hopefully around xmas) they are who I was going to use, this is my first build in 7 years, the last two builds were MSY parts and not a single problem.
    I have no issue with the shop selling me bad ram - it happens in manufacturing, but last time I had bad ram was from PLE in Perth and they swapped it on the spot without question.
    (I wasn't asking for a refund, just a straight like for like swap, this shop sadly switches to not give a ship mode once cash is in the till)
    I'm old school, I like to walk in to the shop, tell em what I want, hand over cash and walk out with it, even before CV19 this shop makes you place an order online, but they are closer than MSY by about 150k and aside from my love of driving I have a neighbour who steals so getting stuff freighted is not an option unless I have it held at the local LPO.

    It turns out the ram is 2400 so all is good on that score - I had to chop & change some stuff at the last minute due to availability which is I why I was thinking 2133.
    The board, I like it, I could have gone with a non gaming board for $20 less but this board has two extra USB's - and at $269 it was very reasonably priced.

    As part of the process to find out why the box was unstable I updated the bios and all drivers -and the mem tests were done using memtest.
    On 16 it's stable, but slower.
    Thanks for the advice guys.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
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    Can't you just test it in pairs? two of one, two of the other -that identifies which half is the problem. Then put one bad and one good together, if it works, and the other-bad other-good doesn't, you know which is bad.

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