Silly RAM installation question

[Sycokinetic]

Okay, I have a G75VW-BBK5. As such it has 2 of it's 4 RAM slots installed with 4 GB of RAM each. Also, because this is Win7 Home Premium, I am limited to 16 GB of RAM.

Is there any way I could install two 8 GB sticks and use them such that i had all 16 GB on dual channel, basically ignoring the two sticks installed already?

[Clintlgm]

well I think you'll have 24 GB of ram, all running in dual channel mode. If window 7 HP SP1 only recognizes 16 GB I have no idea which part of the ram it would not recognize. You could probably use Hwinfo64 to see perhaps what part of the ram is not being used? It would also show you weather your in dual mode or not also.

[Pitcher1]

i suggest you plug 4 same size and same type DIMM. i am not recommend plug difference type and size.

[Myk_SilentShado]

Nope you can't limit what RAM gets used, but, also you could always use the extra 8GB as a RAM Cache/RAMDisk 🙂

[Sycokinetic]

Myk SilentShadow wrote:
Nope you can't limit what RAM gets used, but, also you could always use the extra 8GB as a RAM Cache/RAMDisk 🙂

Oooohhhh, I really like that idea. Thanks!
And one person I'm asking has said he's seen win7 home premium with 32 GB of RAM. Microsoft's site says it's limited tno 16 GB of physical memory. I don't know what to think, but I believe I'm going to make the RAM cache either way. :3

Also, for anyone wondering, I just used "sudo dmidecode --type 17" in linux to get the RAM model: EBJ40UG8EFU0 GN-F
http://www.elpida.com/en/products/ddr3module.html
They are installed in banks 1 and 3 (the list starting at 0), and are on channels A-DIMM1 and B-DIMM1. They are 1600 MHz and 1.35 V with timings 11-11-11.

If my understanding is correct, that confirms that you can install whatever two sticks you want in the empty slots as long as those two are identical to each other. Those two custom sticks will be in dual-channel mode, as will the stock sticks. The custom sticks will, however, be limited to 1600 Mhz.

Does anyone happen to know how those stock timings and voltage would impact the RAM I installed should it be a different time or voltage?

[Myk_SilentShado]

The guy who said he's seen Premium running with 32GB is either yanking your chain, or had a RAMDisk setup for half the RAM.

As for your questions, yes, the 2nd kit of RAM will be limited to 1600, but since the stock kit is at a sad 11-11-11, you could probably push it to 1866, maybe even 2400 and buy a 2nd kit at 2400 aswell....and having it at that speed, you'll have a pretty zippy RAMDisk too 😄 I would recommend to get 1.35v RAM too.

[Zygomorphic]

The two sets of RAM will run at the same speed, from what I understand. You do want to make sure that the voltages match, since that is an important consideration for the life of the RAM. While the RAM can adjust its timings and speeds to match up, running it at a voltage for which it is not designed is not something that I would advise.