mixing ram from different companies

[Shokan]

I currently have 256 of Azenram, and am looking to get another stick of 512. I did a search of the forum and found some people saying that Azen is a cheaper brand. Would it be OK if I bought a stick of Kingston RAM (is this any good by the way? Ive heard it is.) and "mixed" the 2 ram together? Would this cause any problems? or should I just scrap the azen and get all Kingston (or some other brand)?

[Crack]

Mixing RAM won't hurt anything unless you are going to try to overclock, then you want the Kingston (very good RAM) or the Corsair (Better IMHO than Kingston) The Namebrandness of RAM is only important if you are going to try to do anything that it is not supported (read OCing) other than that, if you just want a bunch of RAM, and you are not going to do anything obsene with it, then you can find some great deals out there for generic RAM. You will get other opinions from people that say if you want the best performance from games and your system in general then get the Most expensive name brand of the week RAM, but I can garontee than you will not notice any difference between Kingston 400MHz PC 3200 512MB, and Generic 400MHz PC 3200 512MB...

[sailor]

You will be fine, so long as the two different brands are the same kind of RAM (ie pc2100, pc2700, etc). Dont plan to overclock with it, but you should be fine.

And yes, Kingston makes some good stuff. I have a couple of sticks in my machine that have run flawlessly, and Kingston stands behind their products. The one stick of their RAM that I have had failed was immediately replaced--and they overnighted me a new stick before I have even sent them the faulty one.

[Shokan]

I'm looking to build a gaming machine, and I don't plan to overclock, seeing how I have no idea how to. I'll probaly just get the Kingston just for piece of mind.

[Lasereth]

crack and sailor have it down. It'll be fine unless you plan on OC'ing. Make sure the RAM speeds are the same, just like they said.

If you even *think* you might possibly in the moderately near uncertain future do some pondering about overclocking, then you'll need the same type of RAM, and probably some nice Corsair.

-Lasereth

[propaganda]

This would help me and might help Shokan. Would differences in CAS Latency affect anything if the speed is the same?

[Lasereth]

Originally posted by propaganda
This would help me and might help Shokan. Would differences in CAS Latency affect anything if the speed is the same?

Yep, definitely try to get the same CAS latencies. Different ones can cause lockups and freezes, etc. I'm pretty sure most motherboards will set the CAS to the highest (worst) setting on either stick for both, so having the same CAS is always best. Having the same brand is always best, but I understand that this isn't always possible. I had three different sticks in my PC, and I had to take one out because the third made it incredibly unstable.

-Lasereth