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Ram that isn't on QVL?

Drayco31
Level 11
Have a 12700K in a ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 and am considering changing to 32GB DDR4 to replace my 16GB. Struggling to find a 32Gb kit that is on the QVL, kit I'd be happy with (no RGB) and happy to pay for.

First time I've actually bothered with memory on QVL but then I got the board shortly after release so thought that was the safer option.

Questions
1. Will I get any grief from support if Ram is not on the QVL? Sometime in the past Gigabyte or MSI essentially said they couldn't offer support when my installed RAM was not on there QVL and I needed to get ram that was.
2. Will 2x16GB or 4x8GB make any difference?
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2 REPLIES 2

Murph_9000
Level 14
You didn't specify any preference for speed. If 2x16 DDR4-3600 CL16 sounds ok, try Crucial BL2K16G36C16U4B; that's a 2 kit of BL16G36C16U4B, which is on the QVL and no RGB. I'm seeing them still available from Amazon. Crucial are winding down their Ballistix line, exiting the gamer/enthusiast market, but their DDR4 is good and there's still some around. 3600 CL16 is a pretty good sweet spot for DDR4, a nice mix of performance vs price, but you're welcome to pay more for faster if that's what you desire.

Support can always point the finger at an unsupported RAM config if the symptoms could be related to RAM, so yeah, worth the extra effort to get a supported config if you can. I'm not saying they would do that unreasonably, just nice to avoid that possibility.

2 DIMMs is always easier to get stable. 4 DIMM DDR4-3600 is certainly possible, that's what I run on X570, but make sure the "socket support" column of the QVL is "1,2,4". If you were to go for some of the super-fast DDR4, 2 DIMM would certainly be more likely to work, and is required for stuff listed as "1,2" on the QVL for a supported config.

Drayco31
Level 11
Sorry I should have added more details. Currently have DDR4-4266 CL19-26-26 which using a Ram Latency checker is 8.9 nanoseconds. 3600Mhz CL16 is 8.8 nanoseconds so that would be fine. Really wouldn't want to go slower than that.

I only started considering it after seeig a few deals for Kingston HyperX 32(2x16GB) 3600Mhz CL16 for £90 recently. As not on the QVL I started looking around. I'll keep an I eye the Crucial you mentioned, wasn't expecting them to be so high at nearly £180. Double the Kingstons price at £90

Always us 2 modules but as I spotted 1,2, 4 on the QVL I was curious as to any Pros/Cons. I'm thinking minimal performance gains and as you say 4 can be more unstable I'll stick to 2. Got a 3 day stay at the Hospital tomorrow so I'll have plenty of free time to see what I can find.. not sure I want to pay £180, least not yet